Tim Eitel  (German, 1971) 

Tim Eitel (German, b.1971) is a noteworthy artist from the New Leipzig School. Born in Leonberg, Germany, near Stuttgart, Eitel began his education in 1993 at Universität Stuttgart, where he studied Roman Studies, German Studies, and Philosophy for one year. In 1994, Eitel began his studies in Fine Art at the Burg Giebichenstein Hochschule für Kunst und Design in Halle, Germany. In 2001, the artist went on to graduate from the Leipzig Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst with a degree in Painting.

Eitel was awarded a postgraduate scholarship and the Marion Ermer Preis during his time as a master student to Professor Arno Rink (German, b.1940) from 2001 to 2003. After leaving this position, Eitel acquired two one year residencies in America, one in Los Angeles, CA, and the next in New York, NY. The artist’s work is included in public collections throughout Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, and the United States.

The New Leipzig School has become the label for the group of young German artists who traveled east to study traditional painting in the 1990s. During his time at the art academy in Leipzig, Eitel studied alongside Neo Rauch (German, b.1960), an artist who helped to make a new name for the school. Eitel combines the traditional characteristics he learned at school with modern concepts; he creates compositions that have a touch of both Realism and Abstract Art. Artists that have had a great influence on Eitel’s work include the Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774–1840) and the Contemporary artist Gerhard Richter (German, b.1932). Eitel’s early works were interior scenes of lone figures or small groups in museums, such as Murakami (2001), or landscapes, such as Abend (2003). All of his paintings are based on photographs that he takes himself; the artist paints his works using Photorealism techniques. In his most recent works, Eitel takes these photographic images and juxtaposes them in an empty, abstract, and almost surreal setting. The spaces around the figures or still lifes are pure inventions of gray structures, as seen in his work Öffnung (2006), and are the only elements in his paintings that do not come from photographic images. Eitel currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.