Biography
Rudolf Schlichter was born in the southern German town of Calw in 1890. After an early apprenticeship as an enamel painter he left his job to attend the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, continuing his studies at the Karlsruhe State Academy of Fine Arts until 1916. After being recruited for military service in the First World War, he carried out a hunger strike in protest and secured an early release. His political and artistic activity continued after the war when he moved to Berlin in 1919, becoming a member of both the revolutionary Novembergruppe (November Group) and the Communist Party, and associating himself with the Dadaists. His desire to use art as a political weapon led him to produce illustrations for the Communist press and for several book publishers, and he took part in exhibitions in aid of workers. His preferred subjects were depictions of the city, the subculture of the intellectual bohème, portraits and erotic scenes. He was included in the ‘Neue Sachlichkeit’ (New Objectivity) exhibition in Mannheim in 1925, and had a solo exhibition at Galerie Neumann-Nierendorf in 1928. With the rise of National Socialism his activities were greatly curtailed, and he was eventually banned from exhibiting by the Nazi authorities. After the war he resumed exhibiting works, which were more Surrealist in character. He died after a short illness in Munich in 1955.
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