curiculum vitae:
Cornelius Rinne was born on December 5, 1955 in Hanover. At the age of 14 he received private drawing and painting lessons. He completed his studies in communication design in Hanover in 1980 with a diploma. He then also studied art in Hanover.
Intensive exchange with artists such as Richard Oelze accompanied and supplemented the course. Oelze asked that Cornelius Rinne come to his funeral on behalf of all the artists. Rinne complied with this request. Oelze was also the one who drew his attention to the drawings of Joseph Beuys. So it happened that in 1981/82, as part of the “free international university”, he was involved in a free art study group in Joseph Beuys’ studio at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.
Due to uncertainties about the general validity of the term art, he defined it for himself in 1983 as follows:
Intensive exchange with artists such as Richard Oelze accompanied and supplemented the course. Oelze asked that Cornelius Rinne come to his funeral on behalf of all the artists. Rinne complied with this request. Oelze was also the one who drew his attention to the drawings of Joseph Beuys. So it happened that in 1981/82, as part of the “free international university”, he was involved in a free art study group in Joseph Beuys’ studio at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.
Due to uncertainties about the general validity of the term art, he defined it for himself in 1983 as follows:
"Art are these stories that a person tells in a in a self-invented language."
In 2009, following his “10 Theses on Art”, he reformulated the sentence as follows:
"Art is the processes that a person documents in a self-invented language."
This sentence has been published in various places. So it came that he also received a certain generality.
After various exhibitions in the 1980s, Rinne turned his public work to work as an illustrator and designer. From 1983 he taught courses for 20 years. In addition to general drawing courses, life drawing was the main focus.
During this time, he refused to exhibit his free, affirmative works in public, because for him the demands of the art market and the demands of his work could not be reconciled. During this time, however, various open creative cycles emerged.
From 2005 he intensified his art-theoretical work and began to exhibit again. Among other things, he exhibited in the art association Heddesheim and Neustadt a. Rbg. and in the Zandvoort Museum. Gallery exhibitions in German metropolises and other European countries also took place.
In 2008 he became a member of the artist group "spursuche". For this group he formulated "10 theses on art" and a text about art as a group manifesto. In 2010 he left the group again. The group was subsequently disbanded.
In 2018 his art-theoretical book "Kunst kann man nicht kaufen! (Art can't be bought!)" was published, about which the journalist Helga König wrote:
"... "Art can't be bought!" is an important book. That's why I recommend all those interested in art and those who want to become one to study it extensively and to discuss it with friends.
Highly recommended."
Cornelius Rinne lives and works in Bielefeld / Germany.