In a letter to his fellow students at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1963, Konrad Lueg suggested, “One should start a group.” In February 1964, he organised an unusual exhibition with Manfred Kuttner, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter. The young artists hired a van and transported a selection of their works from their studios to Wuppertal, where they set them up in the front garden of the Gallery Parnass. They hung their paintings on trees, placed them on the snow-covered lawn and propped them against garden fences. Their aim was to secure an exhibition at the renowned Wuppertal gallery. Three of the four artists — Konrad Lueg, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter — were successful and were given an exhibition. This event went down in art history as the 'front garden exhibition'. Soon after this and several other collaborative projects, the artists went their separate ways: Polke and Richter pursued their artistic careers, Lueg dropped his pseudonym and opened a gallery under his real name, Konrad Fischer, while Kuttner became head of a paint manufacturer's graphic studio.
Valeria Hirtz
