Eva Backofen (born 31 October 1949 in

Meissen Meissen ( ), is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden and 75 km (46 mi) west of Bautzen on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, th ...

; between 1980 and 2007 Eva Anderson) is a German freelance

graphic artist A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming l ...

and

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

living and working since 1980 in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Life

Provenance, education and training

Eva Backofen was born in

(a short distance down-

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

. When she was not quite three the family moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

where she grew up and attended primary and middle schools, between 1956 and 1968 in Berlin-Köpenick. Eva Backofen had been born in the same month as the formal launch of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the separate German state in which she lived and made her life till

reunification A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller politics or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal govern ...

in 1990. The country had embarked on a switch to a system of comprehensive secondary schools at the end of the 1950s, and in 1964 Backofen moved on to the "EOS Berlin-Mitte" (formerly the "Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster"), a four hundred year old former church secondary school which seems to have been in the process of switching to a less classical approach at the time. Here, in 1968, she passed her school final exams (''"Abitur"''), which in her case included a special skilled-workers' qualification as a dealer (''"Handelskauffrau"'') in laboratory and fine chemicals (''"Labor- und Feinchemikalien"''). Because of her artistic talent Backofen now took a job as a stage assistant and sculptor behind the scenes at the

Comic Opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

in 1968. She combined this with a part time study course at the Berlin-Weissensee arts academy. Between 1973 and 1975 she studied "Theatre sculpture" (''"Theaterplastik"'') at the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German language, German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institutio ...

, which she followed up by studying visual arts ( Plastic arts department) at the same institution between 1975 and 1980. She concluded her time at the Fine Arts Academy under the supervision of

Gerd Jaeger Gerd Jaeger (16 September 1927 – 10 January 2019) was a German sculptor and painter. Life Gerd Jaeger was born in Förderstedt, a small village near the lignite mines in the countryside south of Magdeburg. In 1943, aged 16, he was conscr ...

, receiving her degree in 1980.

Sascha Anderson

By this time she was living in

with the "alternative" author-artist, Sascha Anderson, their daughter and Anderson's son. She supported herself as a freelance sculptor in

and, after the young family had, in 1981, accepted an invitation from the singer-journalist Ekkehard Maaß (whose wife was a ceramics artist) to move to the capital,

. It was only some years later that it emerged that by the time Anderson and Backofen got together, Sascha Anderson had been active as an

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms) is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information inten ...

for the detested Ministry for State Security (Stasi) since 1975.Ekkehard Maaß: Und das ist geschehn. Ein Betroffener über die Stasi-Mitarbeit von Sascha Anderson: Es war mehr als Freundesverrat. In: Berliner Zeitung. 25. Juli 2002.) At some point during the 1980s the close relationship with Anderson seems to have ended, however, since after he crossed to

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

in 1986 Eva Anderson continued to live and work in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

and

Professional

In 1984 Eva Anderson (known since 2007 by her maiden name as Eva Backofen) became a member of the Verband Berliner Künstler (''loosely, "Berlin Artists' Association "''). She then in 1989, joined the "Sächsische Künstlerbund" (''"Saxony Artists' Association"''). The imperative to participate in membership of professional associations as part of any career plan changed in various ways after

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, and the

that followed in 1990. In 1991 Eva Anderson became involved with "Künstlergruppe Kartoffel" (''literally, "Potato Artists' Group"''), described in sources as "a kind if communication based public project Backofen's website lists many exhibitions in which she has participated since 1983.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Backofen, Eva 1949 births Living people People from Meissen German artists East German artists Artists from Saxony 20th-century German sculptors 21st-century German sculptors 20th-century German women 21st-century German women 20th-century German women sculptors 21st-century women sculptors