16 Notable alumni of Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig
Updated: June 08, 2026 EliteDegrees
Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig is 5445st in the world, 1st in North America, and 178st in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 16 notable alumni from Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Sixtus Armin Thon
1817-1901 (aged 84)
painter
lithographer
genre painter
photographer
Sixtus Armin Thon was a German painter, etcher and lithographer. There is widespread disagreement over whether his name was Sixtus or Sixt, even though his gravestone says "Sixtus".
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2. Arno Rink
1940-2017 (aged 77)
painter
university teacher
Arno Rink was a German painter. He was accepted to the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (HGB) in 1962 and studied under Werner Tübke, Hans Mayer-Foreyt and Harry Blume. He is associated with the second generation of the Leipzig School, which paints in a German figurative tradition.
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3. Günter Rössler
1926-2012 (aged 86)
fashion photographer
photographer
photojournalist
Günter Rössler was a German photographer who made a name for himself especially in the field of nude art photography. A pioneer of nude photography in East Germany and notable fashion photographer, Rössler was often referred to by the media as the Helmut Newton of East Germany, stylized since Playboy published in 1984 a photo-gallery titled: Mädchen der DDR (Girls...
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4. Carl Werner
1808-1894 (aged 86)
university teacher
landscape painter
painter
watercolorist
architectural painter
Carl Friedrich Heinrich Werner was a German watercolor painter.
5. Anna Haifisch
1986-. (aged 40)
comics artist
illustrator
graphic artist
Anna Haifisch is a German cartoonist and illustrator who has been working for German and international media. She is best known for her cartoons titled The Artist, first published by Vice magazine, her 2018 doodle for Google and her contribution to the series Drawn to MoMA of the New York Museum of Modern Art. Her work has received several awards...
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6. Fritz Quant
1888-1933 (aged 45)
painter
lithographer
etcher
illustrator
Franz Xaver Friedrich Quant, known as Fritz was a German painter, graphic artist and designer.
7. Renate Rössing
1929-2005 (aged 76)
photographer
Renate Rössing was a German photographer. Her career continued beyond the changes of 1989/90. Prior to that, as an East German citizen, she enjoyed privileges which enabled her to travel abroad. She is nevertheless best known for pictures taken in and around her home cities of Leipzig and Dresden during the 1950s and 1960s. Her work embraced photojournalism, portraiture and...
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8. Doris Ziegler
1949-. (aged 77)
painter
Doris Ziegler is a German painter whose work responded to and engaged with the Wende and the peaceful revolution in the GDR during the late 1980s.
9. Neo Rauch
1960-. (aged 66)
painter
photojournalist
university teacher
draftsperson
Neo Rauch is a German artist whose paintings mine the intersection of his personal history with the politics of industrial alienation. His work reflects the influence of socialist realism, and owes a debt to Surrealists Giorgio de Chirico and René Magritte, although Rauch hesitates to align himself with surrealism. He studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, and...
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10. Jan Tschichold
1902-1974 (aged 72)
designer
type designer
lecturer
graphic artist
typographer
Jan Tschichold ( German pronunciation: [jan ˈtʃɪçɔlt]; born Johannes Tzschichhold; (2 April 1902 – 11 August 1974), also known as Iwan Tschichold or Ivan Tschichold, was a German calligrapher, typographer and book designer. He played a significant role in the development of graphic design in the 20th century – first, by developing and promoting principles of typographic modernism, and subsequently...
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11. Lucia Moholy
1894-1989 (aged 95)
photographer
editing staff
teacher
opinion journalist
information professional
Lucia Moholy was a photographer and publications editor. Her photos documented the architecture and products of the Bauhaus, and introduced their ideas to a post-World War II audience. However, Moholy was seldom credited for her work, which was often attributed to her husband László Moholy-Nagy or to Walter Gropius.
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12. Wolfgang Mattheuer
1927-2004 (aged 77)
graphic designer
university teacher
sculptor
photographer
graphic artist
Wolfgang Mattheuer was a German painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Together with Werner Tübke and Bernhard Heisig he was a leading representative of the Leipzig School, a figurative art current in East Germany. He came to prominence with allegorical, pessimistic and sometimes heroic paintings which were accused of expressing political dissidence. He was later an open critic of both socialism...
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13. Katarzyna Kozyra
1963-. (aged 63)
sculptor
performance artist
artist
video artist
performing artist
Katarzyna Kozyra is a Polish video artist. She studied German studies at the University of Warsaw (1985–1988). In 1993, she also graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw where she studied sculpture and Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. Kozryra received a Paszport Polityki award in 1997 as the most promising artist in Poland. She has exhibited...
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14. Gustav Jäger
1808-1871 (aged 63)
painter
draftsperson
illustrator
Gustav Jäger was a German painter.
15. Oskar Zwintscher
1870-1916 (aged 46)
university teacher
painter
visual artist
Oskar Zwintscher was a German painter. He is often associated with the Jugendstil movement.
16. Hannes Hegen
1925-2014 (aged 89)
graphic designer
comics artist
caricaturist
illustrator
author
Hannes Hegen was a German illustrator and caricaturist and is most famous for creating the East German comic book Mosaik and its original protagonists, the Digedags.
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