1901 Gummersbach
1998 Düsseldorf

Bruno Goller was born in Gummersbach on November 5, 1901. He is taught painting by the Düsseldorf landscape painter Julius Jungheim. The young artist sets up his second studio in Gummersbach in 1920, in addition to his first one in Düsseldorf. Bruno Goller belongs to the artists federation "Das junge Rheinland" (The Young Rhineland) as of 1920. He goes to Italy in 1924/25. In 1927 he makes Düsseldorf his permanent place of residence and shows works in the exhibition of the group "Das junge Rheinland". Goller is one of the co-founders of the "Rheinischen Sezession" (Rhine Secession) in 1928.
He has his first one-man show at the gallery Rudolf Stuckert in Düsseldorf in 1936. The situation becomes more and more difficult for Goller after the National Socialists had taken over power in Germany. He is stigmatized as a degenerate artist. He is drafted in 1940. His studio and thus his entire early work is destroyed in an air raid on Düsseldorf in 1943.
He returns to Düseldorf from war captivity in 1945 and picks up working as a painter again. He partakes in the exhibitions of the Westdeutscher Künstlerbund (Federation of West German Artists) as of 1947, which are organized in the Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Museum in Hagen. He gets a lectureship at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1949, teaching a drawing class and a preparatory course. He is appointed professor in 1953 and teaches up until 1964. Among his students are artists such as Konrad Klapheck, Blinky Palermo, Konrad Fischer-Lueg and others.
In 1959 he participates in the documenta II in Kassel. As of 1960 he receives numerous awards and prizes, for example the Art Prize of the Federal State of North-Rhine Westphalia. In 1965 he represents Germany at the 8th Biennale in Sao Paulo. A year later he becomes member of the Berlin Academy of Arts. The Düsseldorf Museum shows a large retrospective of art of the "Neuen Rheinischen Sezession" (New Rhine Secession) in 1969, which also comprises works by Goller. He is appointed honorary member of the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1984. The city of Gummersbach, Goller's place of birth, sets up a cultural center in the Bruno-Goller house in 1989. Bruno Goller dies in Düsseldorf in 1998.

Goller, Bruno