The Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig mourns the loss of painter and lecturer, former colleague and friend Günter Thiele.
He was born in Leipzig on 12 August 1930. He attended the Leipzig School of Arts and Crafts in 1949/50 and was accepted into the Association of Visual Artists as early as 1951.
From 1956 to 1960, Günter Thiele studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin-Charlottenburg and focussed on abstract art. However, he opted for a factual-realistic style of painting with fine colour brilliance and returned to Leipzig.
In 1957, he received his first teaching assignment for perspective at the HGB in the foundational courses painting/printmaking. In 1980, the acadmey awarded him a diploma and from then on employed him as a teacher for first-year painting students. He became a lecturer in 1990 and taught until 1992.
In the decades that followed, he worked as a freelancer.
Günter Thiele died on 20 January 2026 at the age of 95.
Our heartfelt condolences go to his family and all those who knew and experienced him.