Dierk Schmidt

Dierk Schmidt was born in 1965 in Unna, Germany. From 1984 to 1986 he studied in Germany art history and philosophy at the University of Bonn and from 1987 he attended the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he graduated in 1992. From 1996 to 1997 he studied at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He works as an artist and author for the art magazine springerin. Dierk Schmidt lives and works in Berlin.

Dierk Schmidt works as a draftsman, graphic artist and painter. His central theme is the examination of sign systems of all kinds. He is concerned with a critical definition and expansion of the classical, traditional history image. He examines the construction of history, historiography and its representation. In 2007, his work "The Division of the Earth," shown at documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany, gained notoriety for provoking an examination of colonial history through its depiction of the Berlin Conference on Africa. A print of the graphic edition is in the collection of the Generali Foundation—Permanent Loan to the Museum der Moderne Salzburg.

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