2019		demise
2010		Member, Brandenburg Association of Visual Artists (Brandenburgischer Verband Bildender Künstlerinnen und Künstler e.V.
seit 2000		Photography and painting- multiple exhibits, topic: "Portraits of Jazz"
1989-2000		Professional Carpenter
1989		Immigration to Germany
1987-1989		Professional Carpenter
1974-1985		A- Levels; specialization majors: Juvenile Art Academy (Kinder Kunstschule) Apprenticeship: Carpentry
1967		Born in Tallinn (Estonia)

People say that „you'll get what you see“. But what do you get when you look at Arvo Wichmann's paintings? They feature Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Nils Landgren, and other icons of Jazz. You get images painted in bright colors, but you don't get the stars, and not their music. The special quality of a painting lies in the fact that it should not be mistaken for reality. After all, the painting of a pipe is not a pipe. And so the deception of the eye through painting cannot be the the principal function of painting – even though after a first glance at Wichmann's paintings you get the (wrong) impression that they are not showing more than a simple photograph. Yet art can do more than that, and it is this advantage Wichmann transforms with his handwriting when he goes to work with concentration and the will for color and form. The key to understanding his paintings should be sought in the detailed precision of color application and the concentrated work with form. For it is the concentrated gesture of his craft that rejects the cursoriness of an all too transient existence. The photographer may capture the moment, but painting gives meaning to the moment by lending permanence to it. You may see this especially by looking at one of the triptychs showing three views of trombonist Nils Landgren. Wichmann wrests away from transience what in reality only lasted a few seconds, and in so doing he gives it an afterlife in art....more