ARTISTS PROFILE INGO KORNER By Brian McCaffery & Ingo Korner


In my endeavors to find air- brush artists here in Europe that are worthy of exposure to our loyal group of readers, sometimes I come across someone who will just jump out at you. And I believe that this artist is one of those people. Ingo Korner is an East German airbrush artist who through out his life so far has had to battle with not only the former communist regime of his younger years, but also with a long hospital


stay where it was touch and go if he would ever be able to walk again without some sort of aid. But during all these trial and tribulations the one thing that kept him going was his love of art. I myself have come across his work a number of times at various shows here in Europe but for one reason or another we have never been able to hook up, until now that is. Known as the WOLFMAN by his friends and peers Ingo had me totally enthralled in a two hour conver- sation with him recently at an art show I attended. So here you have it, a profile of Ingo Korner the WOLFMAN Ingo’s journey in the wonderful world of art started when he was very young at the age of three to be precise, even though at that time he was not conscious of it himself. He was only told of this by his mother some years later that he was laying face down on the floor drawing and that it was quite evident it was a wolf , why a wolf you may ask well even he cannot explain this. His own earliest recollection of anything to do with draw- ing is around the age of six in kinder garden, he remembers that while all the other kids were taking their afternoon nap he would be drawing, the teacher at the time was so impressed with what he was doing that she encouraged it to the point of bringing him supplies of pencils and paper. You must remem- ber this is East Germany so art supplies were not so readily available. Through out his younger years he kept going with his art, draw- ing and painting anything he could get his hands on. Once he was asked by a teacher at school what he would like to be when he was older he replied a painter. He told me that while he was at school he was deemed an awkward student. Why, it is because I am not a conformist. I have never liked being told what to do. Like many artists the art lessons were the only place where he felt at ease. Around the age of eleven a substitute art teacher showed up at the school and almost immediately took an interest in his work. The teacher was so impressed he told Ingo he held evening classes for what he said were talented students and he would like Ingo to attend.


Ingo attended these classes for approximately a year and a half after which time the teacher told him that he could not teach him anymore and that he must carry on with his art and try to find his way. Nature has always played a big part in Ingo’s life and in his art. He was born and grew up in a place called Klingthal which is located on the Czech boarder where he was surrounded by forest and wildlife. The one thing that was difficult to get was fine art supplies so Ingo began painting on textile which led too painting tee shirts. His older brother was a biker and pretty soon he was painting tee shirts for him which led to painting tee shirts for all his brothers’ biker friends. You must remem- ber that he had never even seen or heard of an airbrush so everything he was painting was with that hairy thing on a stick, paint brush. He had a brainwave sneaking into his parent’s bedroom and took one of his mothers trigger operated spray bottles she used for her hair products. He diluted the paint he started spraying backgrounds on the tee shirts. He laughed telling me that at first his mother was angry but when she saw the cool affect that he was getting she went and got her hands on some more spray bottles. Wide spray, thin spray you name it and she found a way to get it for him. So really his first experience with any sort of air powered painting was in fact a spray bottle. With the little extra cash that he was making he was able to pursue his passion for painting wild life. But then life took a rather nasty turn at the age of sixteen he had a very bad mo- torbike accident that left one of his legs hanging on only by a few strands of skin, he told me that if it was not for the quick thinking of a passerby who applied a tourniquet he would have died. In fact he died twice in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Even though the doctors were able to stitch his leg back together the bones were totally shattered and at that time in East Germany the technology was just not available for bone reconstruction, so it seemed that he be in a wheel- chair for the rest of his life. Ingo spent five years in the hospital where he had more than sixty operations. The only thing that really kept him going was his art, he had access to art materials so he occupied his time by painting the wild life that he would see on the hospital grounds squir- rels, birds, foxes, you name it and he has painted it. During his fifth year in hospital he was asked if he would be willing to take part in some experimental procedures that were taking place in a university hospital. In his own words “what did I have to loose” what happened was nothing short of a miracle after all the years of nothing really being done, a rib was removed and grafted into his leg and the graft took. He was on his way to learning to walk again. During his last year in hospital, he saw a TV program where an artist had painted a eagle head on a wheel cover the art- ist explaining that it was airbrushed. Ingo told me it was like a


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