König Ralf

Born in Soest in 1960, he spent his childhood painting too many Donalds. After a brief, and, according to his parents,highly promising, stint as a journeyman carpenter, he was abruptly and unexpectedly admitted to Düsseldorf ArtsAcademy. There he was side-lined for five years with oils, Play-Doh, and painting-by-numbers books. Unnoticed by theart professors, he secretly continued to draw picture stories. Even though he was certified with a serious predispositionfor the same sex and too much imagination, he was released after ten semesters. Since then, he has been penetratingpeople at home and abroad with his unrestrained and hedonistic bulbous nose characters. In 1993, this earned him theaccusation of portraying homosexuality as natural and of discriminating against heterosexuality (as phrased in a censorshipapplication submitted by the Bavarian youth welfare office, which was denied by the review board on groundsof the protection of the arts). Ralf König lives and scribbles undisturbed by the state in Cologne, Germany.