Albrecht Behmel is a German artist, novelist, historian, non-fiction writer as well as playwright. He creates his artworks in the styles of Contemporary and Neo-Pop Art.
Background
Behmel was born in Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, West Germany (now Germany), on March 24, 1971. An unusual family name is a Germanicized form of the Czech name given Bogomil. It was the name of the area (Bohemia) from where his family emigrated to Saxony at the beginning of the 18th century. On his mother's side, Albrecht Behmel was a descendant of Christoph Martin Wieland, a Swabian poet and writer of the Enlightenment. Behmel was the son of geologist Hermann Behmel and grandson of architect Paul Behmel.
Education
In the early 1990s, after working as a bouncer and a puppeteer in Paris, France, Albrecht Behmel moved to Germany to complete his studies in humanities in the city of Heidelberg. There he was a fellow student of Silvana Koch-Mehrin and Gerrit Jasper Schenk. Then he attended Humboldt University in Berlin.
Career
Behmel has published on ancient history, Greek naval warfare as well as early German literature like the Nibelungenlied. His most notable work is a series of self-help e-books for fellow students. For two of his titles, he used the pseudonym Timothy Patterson.
Albrecht Behmel worked as a business consultant between 1995 and 2005. His published works include novels, such as Mitte 1, Homo Sapiens Berliner Art; computer games, radio plays, film scripts, stage plays as well as non-fiction. Behmel has worked for a number of German and international TV stations, including ARTE and ARD. Behmel became a founder of a network for film and media professionals, known as Filmforum, in 2008.
In 2013 he established the Samiel Award, an annual literary prize for antagonists of newly published German novels. The first Samiel Award received Jan Kossdorff, an Austrian writer, for a dark humor novel about human trafficking and advertising agencies. This award is supported by publisher Marc Hiller of Stuttgart. Winning writers receive 666 Euros, the number of the beast.
A series of paintings The Magic of the Swarms was developed by Albrecht in the years 2013 and 2014. This series was about the fusion of shapes into more complex forms and about the interaction of colours. Moreover, it was also a geometrical game entitled Abstrahism: Intricate chaotic systems, which consisted of simple overlapping elements. The colours helped define the shape, but at the same time emphasise the intricacies of the interaction of each silhouette. The work was created under the influence of ecclesiastical lead lights and also Buddhist mandalas.
Among the most distinguished exhibits, where he displayed his artworks, were the following: group exhibitions at the Evelina Children's Hospital, London, and at the White Space Black Box Galerie, Neuchatel, both in 2015; solo exhibitions at the Convensis Group, Stuttgart, and at the Rathaus Backnang, in 2016; solo show entitled Dark Side of Marvelous in Beverly Hills, California, and group show Acts of Kindness Gala in Manila, the Philippines, both in 2017.
Views
Quotations:
"I enjoy experiments on the screen. The human form and spirit: Grace of movement and the power of the pose."
"This is the era of the artist. It has never been so easy to become a creator as it is today. Everything a young artist needs today is totally in reach, all the knowledge, the exposure, the materials - most of which is free! But if you want to make a living, or better if you want to thrive: make sure you are not cheap but expensive."