SwissArtGallery · Documented identity

Christa Dichgans

German artist Christa Dichgans, born in 1940 and died in 2018, grew up in Düsseldorf, studied at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, and received a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. In 1966, she moved to New York for two years. After painting interior scenes, she began painting still lifes of toys in 1967, drawing in particular on the immediate surroundings of her child’s room. Stilleben mit Batman (1967), made in polyester resin on canvas, as well as the acrylic paintings Grüne Enten / Kakadus and Plastikwolke (1969), testify to these early years of exploration of objects.

In her compositions, objects sometimes line up as if on a production line; elsewhere, they seem to become autonomous or fit together at the centre of the canvas, often against a white background. In the mid-1970s, Dichgans began a series of piles made up of clothes, fire engines or teddy bears, whose accumulation can fill the entire surface. The imagery of childhood is also combined with weapons or tanks, motifs associated with the memory of a country at war. Der Jüngste Tag (1976), a 150 × 200 cm work in Aquatec on canvas, belongs to this period. In Künstler in Berlin (1986), figures and objects overlap transparently. From 1984, she worked for four years as Georg Baselitz’s assistant at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.

The world of childhood reappears in her paintings of the 2010s; Würste (2013), an oil painting on canvas measuring 40 × 30 cm, is a late example. Her works were shown in the exhibition Power Up – Female Pop Art at Kunsthalle Wien in 2010–2011. They are also held in German public collections. In 2018, the exhibition catalogue Kein Stilleben for the exhibition at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hanover was published.

This profile brings together identity references for Christa Dichgans and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.

1 references are documented at Germann. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.

Works recorded at auction

Germann

Untitled, 1978

Charcoal drawing.

Original catalogue wording

Ohne Titel, 1978
Kohle-Zeichnung.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

View the lot at the auction house ↗

Sources and references

• Reference record
• LoC · Public domain (id.loc.gov authority metadata; link only)
• Documentary source
• Documentary source
• Documentary source

SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
Documentation updated : 2026-10-19