This time the Hans Platschek Prize will be awarded to Paula Doepfner

Karlsruhe, 5 January 2024 - Marion Ackermann, General Director of the Dresden State Art Collections, attests to the "impressive topicality" of the text drawings by Paula Doepfner, born in 1980 and based in Berlin. The artist was a master student of Rebecca Horn at the Berlin University of the Arts and deals with crises and wars, including Auschwitz dramas. She is therefore regarded as an existentially orientated draughtswoman. She follows in the literary footsteps of writers such as Paul Celan and Robert Musil.

Marion Ackermann was invited by the award organiser - the Hans Platschek Foundation in Hamburg - to nominate a personality for the 2024 prize as a solo juror. The Hans Platschek Prize for Art and Writing has been awarded annually by the Platschek Foundation at art KARLSRUHE since 2008. Paula Doepfner's work, which often consists of spoken word and visual art, establishes a congenial relationship with Hans Platschek. The painter and writer, who last lived in Hamburg and died there in February 2000, was born in Berlin in 1923, like Paula Doepfner, had to emigrate from Nazi Germany with his family as a teenager and then studied at the art academy in Montevideo.

After returning from Uruguay in 1953, Hans Platschek quickly became a valued member of the informal circle. With his intellectual acumen, he opened up the artistic path to New Figuration as early as the end of the 1950s. A trailblazer and a double talent who sometimes hid his light under a bushel. "I am a painter and I write about art," Platschek liked to modestly introduce himself - even when he had long since been awarded Biennale and documenta honours.

Paula Doepfner is currently represented with an exhibition, "Darkness at the break of noon", at the Residenzschloss of the Dresden State Art Collections until 28 January 2024. During art KARLSRUHE 2024, she will engage in a dialogue with works by Hans Platschek in Hall 3 of the fair. The prizewinner, who frequently observes autopsies and makes sketches at the Charité hospital in Berlin, will impressively document for the general public that art is much more than just creating beautiful pictures. In the spirit of Hans Platschek.

The award ceremony will take place at the upcoming art KARLSRUHE on Thursday, 22 February 2024, 4 pm in the ARTIMA art Forum in Hall 2. The laudatory speech will be held by Dr Marion Ackermann, Director General of the Dresden State Art Collections. The artist Paula Doepfner will be present.

Details of the paintings on display:

Paula Doepfner, "I got nothing, Ma, to live up to", text: "Vergiss Deinen Namen nicht - Die Kinder von Auschwitz" by Alwin Meyer, ink on Gampi paper, 101 x 180 cm, 2022 - 2023. photo: Mathias Schormann

Portrait: Paula Doepfner, 2023