Wilhelm Paul Eberhard Eggers Biography

Wilhelm Paul Eberhard Eggers

German

1939-2004

Biography

Painter, printmaker, and sculptor Wilhelm Paul (WP) Eberhard Eggers was born Wilhelm Paul Eberhard Eggers on January 14, 1939, in Hanover, Germany. He was raised in Linden, and though he showed early proficiency in art, his education was put on hold until the end of the Second World War when the Waldorf School, banned by Nazi Germany, could reestablish itself in the late 1940s. His formal art education began with private lessons, taken at the same time as his training as an industrial clerk, from artists Fritz Junghans, Dieter Rudlof, and Mac Zimmerman. He was especially drawn to Surrealism and the Mannerist style, which he employed throughout most of his career. 

Eggers began his career as a freelance artist illustrator in 1959, joining the Association of Visual Artists (BBK); that same year, he founded the Ricklingen art group. He took up a lecturer position at the Volkshochschule Hannover in 1960, and from 1961 to 1964 he founded and operated the Araban 13 art association and publishing house. Among the writings he illustrated in these years were the Theatrum Anatomysticum, The New Dwarven Cabinet, and his own Little Ancestral Chamber, as well as a printmaking calendar for 1965. In the mid 1960s he began to exhibit internationally, including throughout Europe, Russia, Japan, and the United States. He lived primarily in the U.S. for much of the 1970s and '80s, working as a guest lecturer and teacher in Wisconsin and South Dakota, and in 1973 he received scholarships from the Ford Foundation and the University of New Mexico. 

His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Hanover government; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others. Listed exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Kunstlerhaus Hannover, Sprengel Museum, Municiple Gallery (retrospective), Hannover; among many others. He was awarded the Promotion Prize of the State of Lower Saxony (1968), and the 3rd Prize from the Heinrich Zille Foundation for Critical Graphics. 

WP Eberhard Eggers died in Hanover, Germany on August 8, 2004.