Born on the 29th of April in Wattenscheid in the Ruhr District of Germany

Evacuated with his mother to Dux and to Marienbad in Chechoslovakia, occupied by German troops.

Youth spent in Wattenscheid and Essen Katernberg - Heilig Geist

First trip to a foreign country to Rotterdam.

Several trips during the summer to ToberazhofAllgäu. First watercolors.

Apprentices as a letter painter in the design department of the Westfalenkaufhaus in Gelsenkirchen and begins evening classes at the Folkwang-Schule in Essen-Werden.

University studies at the Folkwang-Schule in Essen-Werden. First trip to Paris in April 1957

In autumn he receives a scholarship from the Folkwang-Schule. Travels on a cargo ship to Norway. First studio in Kettwig - vor der Brücke, in an old woodworking warehouse.

Spends several months in Greece, on the islands of Santorini, Thera, Skiros and meets the Dominican priest Jacques Laval.

After the end of his studies he lives in Ios, Greece, from April to November. Takes the first photographs of his body. Leaves Germany and moves to Paris in a studio on the l’île Saint Louis in November.

Spends spring and summer in Spain, Catalonia - on the Costa Brava. He participates in his first group show «Choix et Découvertes - Quelques Artistes Français» at the Galerie Marie-Thérèse in Luxembourg.

Installs himself in a studio in Reims, France.
Exhibition at the Pigeonnier Laval, 75 rue Gambetta in Reims.

Exhibition at the Galerie du Haut Pavé. He spends the summer in Greece on the Island of Ios.

Leaves France and moves back to Germany to live.

Moves to Düsseldorf - Fürstenwall in February. He is commissioned to decorate the “Liverpool Club”.
Produces his first sculpture in polyester, “Yellow Silo”.

Establishes a painting class for young children in his studio in Düsseldorf.

Directs a film, “Merchant of Sand” for the German television with the children from his painting class. Exhibit of his first installation, at the Kunsthaus of Hamburg, ”Public Eye”, composed of basins with 16 floating cylinders. “Environments” Installation featuring water bags, organized by Harald Szeemann for the Kunsthalle of Bern. Participated in parallel show to Prospect 68 Kunsthalle Düsseldorf at Gallery Hella Neubeling with the Arte Povera artists, Mario Merz, Anselmo Zorio, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, and Klaus Rinke.

First one-man show at the Galerie Konrad Fischer in Düsseldorf. Presentation of the piece “9000 Liter begehbares Wasser”. Exhibit “Intermedia” in Heidelberg. Presentation at the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden of the work “14x14 Installation” - Water from the river in Baden-Baden is pumped through hoses and exhibited in the museum along with 12 containers holding water from the Rhine River.

One-man show at the Musée Schloss Morsbroich in Leverkusen: “The Disabling of a Museum, Opération Poséidon”. Participates in the project “Male-Female” at the Tokyo Biennial, performed with Monika Baumgartl. Exhibition of his photographic series of his body.

First performance of “First Demonstration”, exhibited in a group show at the Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden. Participation in the 7th Biennial of young artists in Paris. Receives “Special Recognition” along with Pier Paolo Calzolari and Nancy Graves. Exhibition «Wasserprozesse» at the Galerie Ricke in Cologne.

First presentation of the “Time-Space-Body and Action” at the Gallery L’Attico in Rome and at the Reese Palley Gallery in New York with Monika Baumgartl. Participates in Documenta 5 in Kassel. Exhibition “Tentative Explanation of My Work”, accompanied by a catalogue-book of the artist, at the Kunsthalle of Tübingen. Prospect 1972 Kunsthalle Düsseldorf ”Mutation” photographic series presented. Parallel to “Prospect 1972” at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, performance at the Studio of Blinki Palermo and Ulrich Ruckhrem, Mönchengladbach, with Vito Acconci, Dennis Oppenheim, William Wegman, Terry Fox, Tony Morgan, Klaus Rinke. Creates his first drawings dealing with gravitation.

Development of themes related to time, space and distance, through his “expansion-drawings”.

Creation of a series of drawings on complex gravitation as an instrument to measure the non-temporal. One man show at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.: “In Front Of…”. Participation in the 12th Biennial of Sao Paulo. Resides in Brazil for 3 months. The Region of North Westphalia First Prize awarded to Klaus Rinke and Pina Bausch.

“Point in Time, Drawings on theGground, Measurement of Time, Project 74” at the Cologne Kunsthalle. “Klaus Rinke at the Clock Tower” Institute for Art and Human Resources, New York. One-man show at the Gallery Schmela in Düsseldorf, installation entitled: “12000 Liters of Water Between Sweet Water and Salty Water”. Awarded the Konrad-von-Soest Prize, by the Minister of the Region of Westphalia. Begins teaching at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. Forms a class of students who employ found objects, found spaces and found concepts and stories – sculptures are placed within a context, painters are encouraged to consider color as a matter in and of itself. Based on their individual characters, the results are fundamentally different, producing not only sculptors and painters, but film makers and photographers as well, who see their films and videos as pictorial phenomena or sculptures. In this class, each individual collaborates with the group and after a certain number of years, artistic relationships are created between the different students which brings to these young artists an artistic maturity.

One-man exhibit in the Kunstverein of the Rheinland and Westphalia at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.

One man show: ”EX-HI-BI-TI-ON”, at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England.
Exhibition of «Travaux de 1969 à 1976» at l’ARC 2, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Participation in Documenta 6 at Kassel. Presents the series: “Drawings – Gravitation” and the series of drawings: “One degree Less in a Turnus” and “Line Expansive of 0 to 36 Metres.” “Forum Metal” in Linz, Austria: Installation on the banks of the Danube of two vertical axes which meet at the center of the earth.

One man show in the Rotunda of the Hamburg Kunsthalle, entitled “My Sculpture is a Drawing”. Installation of 61 tree trunks entitled: “A Pole Falls in Space – 60 Seconds.”

Several trips to Australia for 4 months at a time. Creation of the series of drawings entitled “Pre-Embrionic Journal”, comprising 800 drawings. Starts a collection of ethnic artifacts from Papua New Guinea and from the Aborigines of Australia.

Participation in the 3rd Sydney Biennial. Participation in the 3rd International Biennial of Visual Arts in Vienna, Austria. Collaboration with Joseph Beuys. Presentation of “Instrument: Projection, Distance – (Back + Forth) – Mass.”

Group show “Yesterday and After” in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Montréal. Starts producing graphite drawings on over-sized canvases. These drawings are based on his body photographs taken in Greece. One-man show in Vienna’s Sécession. Presentation of the piece: “Wasserwerk - The Sea is Behind the City”. One man show at the Galerie der Stadt in Linz, Austria: “ Ursprung - Rechercher and find the Bases.” Presentation of his collection of ethnic artifacts from Australia, New Guinea, Africa and Latin America. Moves to Haan near the city of Düsseldorf.

Exhibition at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart of drawings: “Rinke Draws by Hand – Autonomous Works from 1957-1980”. Discussion between Klaus Rinke and Joseph Beuys for the opening of the show on the theme: “Society as a Drawing”. One man show at Ace Gallery in Los Angeles: “Sculpture-Performance-Sculptures” (Poseidon). Establishes a studio in California where he continues to work several months per year. Presentation at the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf of the exhibition “Klaus Rinke - Handmade drawings”.

Exhibition in Vancouver, Canada, of a series of large drawings, graphite on canvas, entitled: “Morgennebel im Neanderthal.”

Produces a sculptural project, “Die Entnahme" commissioned by an insurance corporation in Cologne. The action involves traveling around the world to bring back water from the 7 seas and installing the water in Cologne - “Sculpture-Water Gravitation”

Exhibition in the Neanderthal Valley, presentation of monumental sculptures in nature and drawings in the Zeichnungen Museum. In Los Angeles, beginning of colorful drawings on paper.

Exhibition “L’instrumentarium de Klaus Rinke” in the Forum of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Begins his cactus collection in Haan and Los Angeles.

Sculpture installed in Lusigny sur Barse in Champagne-Ardennes, France. “Hommage à Gaston Bachelard, L‘eau et les rêves. One man show in the Palais de Tau, next to the Cathédrale of Reims, France. Paintings and drawings created in France from 1960 to 1964, drawings from the ”Neanderthal” series 1981-1982, and drawings from Los Angeles created from 1984-1986.

Creation of a monumental sculpture in a public park in Düsseldorf: “The Field of Time”, 24 synchronized railway clocks. One-man show in the Galerie de France in Paris: “La Mémoire de la peau”, graphite drawings on parchment.

Participation in the exhibition “La Planète” in the Lac du Merle at Albi in France, “Le chaos du Sidobre, presentation of the work «Images et Mages».

Exhibition at the Beaux-Arts Museum of Leipzig: “Wattenscheid -1939 Selfportrait MEZ”.

“Joseph Beuys? – Present!” work bought by the Kunstmuseum of Düsseldorf.
“Door to Infinity” installed in the Pax Christi Church in Krefeld.
Exhibition in the New City Gallery in Linz, Austria: “Ethnic Art Next to the Art of Our Time”.

In Los Angeles, creates a series of graphite drawings on pig skin, accompanied by ethnic objects (Japanese, Mexican and Indian drums, dried plants…). Exhibition at the Karsten Greve Gallery in Cologne: “Memory of the Skin”. Exhibition “The Museum and the Church –Religious Aspects in ModernAart“ in the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg. Presentation of the sculpture: “The Angry Christ”. Exhibition of the Arts Society of Wuppertal in the Von der Heydt Museum : “Secret Treasures.”. One-man show : “RETRO-AKTIV 1954-1991 “ in the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle. Exhibition in the Wilhelm Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen. An installation of 12 barrels containing water from the Rhine River is exhibited along with a work by Anselm Kiefer. Landesmuseum of Munster, Konrad von Soest 40th prize : Exhibition of graphite drawings. «Wasser & Schwerkraft = Harmonic», Kunsthalle in Kiel - Germany.

One man show in the Galerie de France in Paris. Presentation of a sculpture made utilizing the trunks of trees: “De l’Horizontal à la Vertical”, along with a series of graphite drawings on canvas: “La Dot Paysanne Après Tchernobyl et Charbon Chaud Lavé”. Exhibition entitled: “German Photography in Art Today” in the Ludwig Museum in Cologne. Presentation of the photographic series: “The Length of the Wall”, taken in New York in 1971. Creation of a mural painting, 200m x 8.50 m and a momumental sculpture for the façade of the Tabor supermarket, in Steyr, Austria, entitled: “I Would Like to Reach the Sky”. Exhibition entitled: “40 Ans de Collections Reimoises 1930 – 1970” in the Beaux-Arts Museum in Reims, France. Exhibition at the Gallery Gropiushaus in Berlin: “Sprung in die Zeit - To Disappear into the Medium in a Fraction of a Second”, presented in a series of 18 photographs.

“Hirnwindungen, Zeichnungen from 1969 à 1989”, in the Frac Picardie in Amiens, France. Exhibition in Barcelona of 2 water photographs from 1969, “Different Natures” (100x150 cm).

Exhibit entitled “Hors Limites” in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Presentation of an installation comprising 12 tons of water taken from the Rhine River in 1969, and a series of photographs, “Mutation” from 1970, exhibited conjointly in the same space with a video piece from Bruce Naumann. Installation of a monumental sculpture entitled: “A sunbeam in a Forest of Poplar Trees” erected in the central courtyard of the German Senate building, Unter den Linden 50, in Berlin - Germany.

Exhibit in the Staatsgalerie of Stuttgart “The Magic of Numbers”, the piece entitled “Deutschzeit 1974/1984.” Exhibition at the Kunsthalle of Vienna “Belief, hope, love, death”, Out of Focus, in honor of the inauguration of the Hamburger Bahnhof, National Gallery of Berlin. Presentation of a photographic series, “Mutation” belonging to the National Gallery.

An exhibition in collaboration with 157 present and former students entitled: “SALDO 23, The Rinke Class”, presented in the Kunstpalast, of the Kunstmuseum of Düsseldorf. Exhibition of a photographic piece at MOCA in Los Angeles, “Out of Action. Between Performance and Object”, a traveling show presented as well in Barcelona, Vienna and Tokyo.

Creation of a mural painting 300m x 6.50m and a monumental sculpture above the central entrance and along the length of the supermarket Haus der Waren in Linz Urfahr in Austria. Reinstallation of the series “Northern Watercolors of 1979” in the collection of the Hamburger Kunsthalle.

Exhibition in the MAC of the University of Sao Paulo, Brasil: “Apesenteur”, 1973.

Exhibition in the Galerie Meyer Ellinger in Frankfurt of drawings along with an installation. One-man show in the Stadtsparkasse in Haan, Germany: “Klaus Rinke, Projects Thought and Completed.” Presentation of 40 photographs. Inauguration of the new Tate Gallery in London, a large photographic piece, “Mutation” (belonging to the collection of the Tate Gallery) exhibited in the room consecrated to art and the body, along with Bruce Nauman.

Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, “Photographs” - Collection of the D.G. Bank. Exhibition at the Centre d’Art Contemporain de Pougues-les-Eaux “Campus Thermal”. Presentation of works focusing on water along with photographs from 1960 to 2001. One-man exhibition “Solar, Aqua, Tempus” at the Grand Café de Saint Nazaire, France. Development of a project on time, presentation of an installation with water, photographs, drawings and paintings from 1965-2001.

Exhibition “Jetzt – Heute”, photography in Düsseldorf, in the Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf. Expo 02 – Project created in collaboration with the architect Jean Nouvel, “Le temps du Lac”, in Murten Morat, Switzerland. Exhibition “Wasserfälle – Europa”, History of the Rhine and of the Maas. Installation of a circular aquarium containing live fish. Exhibition “Tempo” at MoMA in New York (MoMAQNS) “Albert Einstein! When does this train stop at Baden-Baden?” Photographic exhibition in the Deutche Museum in Munich: “Das andere Gesicht”. Exhibition of the Rosenkranz collection in the Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany. Drawings and photographic pieces.

“Von Körpern und anderen Dingen”, German photography from the Weimar Republic to the Republic of Berlin. Exhibit presented at the Museum of Prague, in the Deutches Historiches Museum in Berlin, and in the Museum of Photography in Moscow. One man exhibition at the Deutsche Bank, Luxembourg: “Die Welt, Du wirst Sie ubergeben müssen”. July – December: Residence at l’ Atelier Calder, Sache, France. One-man exhibition at La Galerie de l’Hôtel de Ville de Chinon, France: “Au Commencement était le Dessin.” Debate with Jean-François Chevrier at the l’Université François Rabelais de Tours. Title of the discussion: “Origine”. One-man exposition at the C.C.C. in Tours - France: “Plutonium”, time sculptures, sculptural paintings in graphite, photographs.

“Von Körpern und anderen Dingen”, Bochum Museum - Germany. One man show: “Gedacht-Gemacht”, von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany. Project photographs and tracing the development to large graphite paintings. Exhibition at the Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf: “Ready to Shoot: T.V. Gallery, Gerry Schum/Video-Gallery, Gerry Schum”. Deutsche Bank, Düsseldorf: “Rundgang”, works from the Kunstakademie in the Deutsche Bank Collection. R.M.I.S. Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, “German Photography.” J. Paul Getty Museum, Scholar/Artist in Residence Grant: “Duration”. Retires from Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf after 30 years of teaching: “Die Übergabe”.

Musée des Beaux Arts, Nantes, France: “L’Art et Poisie: L’Effet Mallarmé” - Drawings from 1957-1982. Galerie Michel Reim: “Klaus Rinke: 66” - Graphite paintings and photographs from 1970-2003. Kunst-Mintrop 20 “Drawings: Theodor Mintrop (1814 - 1870) – Klaus Rinke (1939 - today).

"Hagia Sophia", solo exhibition organized by the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry and the German Art Foundation, Hagia Sophia Museum Istanbul. "Klaus Rinke Hand-Werk", solo exhibition Foyer of the NRW Handwerkskammer in Düsseldorf.

"Mund-Werk", solo exhibition in the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Rosenkranz cube IV

Recent Drawings: Rhine, Ruhr, Danube, Loire, Pacific Connection, Re-Australia – RMIT Gallery, Melbourne.