Felix Droese was born in Singen, Hohentwiel, in 1950. In 1970, Droese enrolled at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and studied under Joseph Beuys, who would remain a friendly mentor and adviser for the future (via the Free International University), and Peter Brüning. The artist in training, already politically vocal, had been granted conscientious objector status the year before, which meant he had to perform his substitute civilian service in the psychiatric division of a Düsseldorf hospital. His art from that period, regrouped in the Der Grafenberg cycle, reveals the deep impact of that experience and Droese’s attempt to come to terms with it.
Demonstrations, prison, journalistic and associative collaboration, elections and various other political endeavours provided the rhythm for Droese’s career, in spite of the challenges these stances might have represented for him. In 1977, the artist collaborated with Spuren magazine and the Kultur und Volk association in Cologne. In 1979, he ran as a candidate for the ‘Alternative List’ for the Düsseldorf city council. In 1981, he organised the Aktion 17.12 for the Polish political organisation Solidarność at the ‘Pax Christi’ parish house in Krefeld.
After experiments with flat paper cut-outs in the early 1980s, Droese moved to the three-dimensional realm by adding glass and fabric to his compositions. Honest with himself and his country’s past, he explored national guilt in the striking Ich habe Anne Frank umgebracht (I killed Anne Frank). Cutting and slicing, in homage to 19th century folk art techniques, become part of his methodological arsenal as a powerful empathic process of transmission.
Combining art with action, the 1990s were Droese’s period of political art action, such as tree plantings, mural paintings and other forms of creative intervention.
He took part in the 1982 documenta exhibition (where he presented his Anne Frank-inspired artwork) and was invited to exhibit work in the German Pavilion of the 1988 Venice Biennale, where he presented Haus der Waffenlosigkeit – Bundesrepublik Deutschland (House of Weaponlessness – The Federal Republic of Germany).
