Norbert Prangenberg’s art emerges from a fundamental interaction of hand, eye and material which has manifested itself in a variety of genres – in drawings and in prints, as well as in imaginative sculptures and in his unmistakable painting style. His drawings and paintings are characterized by simple shapes like circles, diamonds, squares, ovals and triangles. Initially he worked with pastel and watercolour and only recently began working in oils. He uses the materiality of the medium through his impasto technique, which in some works lap over the edge and thus become a sculptural object. The layer created by this impasto application of oil paint is ruptured by tiny irregular cuts, revealing parts of the underlying canvas. In other pieces Prangenberg uses copper or zinc, which let the metal of the support shine through, thereby achieving an extraordinary translucent effect.

In the 1980s he began working on sculptures. Already outstanding due to their dimensions, the ceramic works recall the vessel as it has been used in the Mediterranean world since antiquity. Both the intense treatment of the surface and the varied use of colour give the pieces their characteristic appearance. Norbert Prangenberg was born in 1949 in Rommerskirchen-Nettesheim. During his apprenticeship as a gold and silversmith he produced his first woodcuts and drawings, beginning in 1965. Since the 1980s he has gained international renown through his participation in documenta 7 in Kassel. Starting in 1993 Norbert Prangenberg held a professorship for ceramics and glass at the Kunstakademie in Munich. Norbert Prangenberg passed away in 2012 in Krefeld.