The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Jetelová, Gotthard Graubner, Nam June Paik, Nan Hoover, Katharina Fritsch, Tony Cragg, Ruth Rogers-Altmann, Sigmar Polke, Anselm Kiefer, Rosemarie Trockel, Thomas Schütte, Katharina Grosse and photographers Thomas Ruff, Thomas Demand, Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer. In the stairway of its main entrance are engraved the Words: "Für unsere Studenten nur das Beste" ("For our Students only the Best").
Early history
The school was founded by Lambert Krahe in 1762 as a school of drawing. The first female professor, Catharina Treu, was appointed in 1766. In 1773, it became the "Kurfürstlich-Pfälzische Academie der Maler, Bildhauer- und Baukunst" (Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the Electorate of the Palatinate). During the Napoleonic Wars, the count palatine's art collection was inherited by the Wittelsbach family and moved to Munich, prompting the Prussian government—who had annexed the Düsseldorf region after Napoleon had surrendered—to change it into a Royal Arts Academy in Düsseldorf, in 1819.
In the 1850s, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf became internationally renowned, with many students coming from Scandinavia, Russia and the United States to learn, among other things, the genre and landscape painting associated with the Düsseldorf school.
Düsseldorf School of Photography
Students of Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf School of Photography have included Laurenz Berges, Elger Esser, Bernhard Fuchs, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Simone Nieweg, Thomas Ruff, Jörg Sasse, Thomas Struth, . The academy has its own museum: the academy gallery (near to the historic city hall). The new director, Rita McBride, will open the academy to new media such as 3D printing. Every February the academy opens to the public, an event which is called Rundgang (tour).
Directors
1773–1789 Lambert Krahe
1789–1806 Johann Peter von Langer
1819–1824 Peter von Cornelius
1826–1859 Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow
1859–1867 Eduard Julius Friedrich Bendemann
1867–1870: 1868–1895: Hermann Wislicenus 1895–1908 Johann Peter Theodor Janssen 1826–1859 Wilhelm von Schadow 1908–1924 Fritz Roeber 1924–1933 1933–1937 1937–1945 Emil Fahrenkamp 1945–1946 Ewald Mataré 1946–1949 Werner Heuser 1949–1954 1956–1965 1965–1972 1972–1981 Norbert Kricke 1981–1988 1988–2009 Markus Lüpertz 2009–2013 Tony Cragg 2013–2017 Rita McBride 2017–2022: Karl-Heinz Petzinka since April 2023: Donatella Fioretti