Hermann Niebuhr

Who is Hermann Niebuhr?

Hermann Niebuhr is a South African artist who lives in Johannesburg. He utilizes oils on canvas in a classical painterly style to document urban decay as well as rural landscapes.

Niebuhr was born in Johannesburg in 1972. He studied at Rhodes University, Grahamstown and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1993.

He spent six years in the arid region of South Africa known as the Karoo. Working from the small town of De Rust, Niebuhr isolated himself and developed his technique. Upon his return to his hometown of Johannesburg in 2002, he began to confront the challenges of living and making art in one of Africa's largest and politically most complex cities.

In Night Ride Home, Niebuhr told the story of a young man from the northern suburbs driving past blurring lights on his way to a safe haven.

Niebuhr's exhibition Night Shift brought him to the heart of the city. Armed with only a camera, he entered neighborhoods such as Hillbrow which had most dramatically shifted from Art Deco affluence in the mid-to-late 20th century to poverty and crime in the early 21st.