Udo Sellbach

Born in Cologne, Germany in 1927, Udo Sellbach was conscripted to the army and sent to the Russian front in the last months of the Second World War in 1945. Much of his work stems from this experience and the horror of war, the intense black shapes invoking the charred landscapes of bombed cities or war-torn landscapes.

He was trained at Kölner Werkschulen, Cologne, Germany from 1947-1953, in the Bauhaus model, which would influence his teaching in the future and, along with other post-war European immigrants, bring this European model to Australia.

He migrated to Australia with his partner Karin Schepers, also an artist, in June 1955. From 1960-1963 he lectured in printmaking at the South Australian School of Art, Adelaide and moved to Melbourne in 1965 to teach printmaking at RMIT with Tate Adams.

He was a joint founder of the Print Council of Australia with Grahame King and Ursula Hoff in 1966.

In 1977 he was appointed the founding Director of Canberra School of Art (CSA) and formed the Graphic Investigation workshop in 1978, appointing Czech Petr Herel to the helm. He was the Director of the CSA from 1977 to 1985. He moved to Hobart, Tasmania in 1985 until his death in 2006.

Covers and blocks Volume XXVI, Numbers 1-4, 1967

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