MICHAELA MEISE

Michael Meise was born in Hanau, Germany in 1976. She received her education at Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, and Kunsthochschule, Kassel. She lives and works in Berlin.

Her most recent watercolour paintings developed from extensive research of the artist’s own family tree. 

“During the process of drawing the maternal and paternal family tree, my parents' position in the pictures maintained that of being children. Going further back in time meant crossing the time line of 1945, and addressing the lives of my ancestors during the time of German Fascism and World War II. I had knowledge of my grandparents' and grand- grandparents' political opinions and personalities. They were very much in line with the political consensus of any given time and current government, whether during the years before or after World War II. For example, during the years of Fascism, Heini Seidler – the great-grandfather on the maternal side of the family and indeed the frst of many hairdressers of the family – appeared to please many clients. He never quit his Jewish customers, but still chose to join the National Socialist Party. Thereafter, during the years of postwar Germany, he was active in the hair dressers guild and as a local politician of the Christian Democratic Party. In fact, the only person that publicly displayed a stance against Fascism was my paternal grand-grandfather. He was a clergyman with ties to the resistance movement of the Protestant church. His son in law, a devoted protestant himself, nonetheless ended up serving in the Wehrmacht from 1940 to 1945 and died in combat.”

Text from “Line Mercator”, STANDARD (OSLO), 2022

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