Dr. Herbert Jost-Hof
Expertise on the development and significance of the works of the artist Dieter Walter Liedtke as well as their art-historical classification and the resulting intellectual and material value.
1. preliminary remark
As a cultural and communication scientist, the intellectual work of Dieter W. Liedtke, which finds expression in his paintings, sculptures and writings, is extremely interesting and valuable for me, as it opens, among other things, an access to the creative potential of each individual human being and thus to an exchange of ideas, which can lead not only our culture but humanity as a whole into a more peaceful and prosperous future. Since I first met Dieter W. Liedtke in person at a press conference at the beginning of 2005, I have been intensively engaged with his thoughts and the resulting works; as a result, I have been invited to several vernissages of Liedtke as a laudator. On these occasions I could always experience how directly and intensely his words and images had an effect on people, be it on visitors or on the representatives of the press, who carried a corresponding echo into the public.
I write this report out of respect for Dieter W. Liedtke and his work and in the awareness that every opportunity should be taken to make his findings available to the public as quickly and comprehensively as possible for the benefit of all. Since I am aware of the facts that this will not remain without consequences for certain phenomena of the art market and that therefore not only the intellectual but also the material value of his works plays an important role, I will also comment on this, even though I myself am not an art historian. Among other things, I agree with the art value assessment of an expert, the director of the Weimar Art Collection, Dr. Thomas Föhl, whose expertise from 2001 and 2002 as well as a supplement to this from 2005 are available to me, and derive my conclusions from it. The following explanations deal with the person of Dieter W. Liedtke and his work, which they then first appreciate and assess in an intellectual-historical and then in an art-historical context.
Dieter Walter Liedtke, born in Essen in 1944, is distinguished above all by his versatility. He has provided proof of his creativity through concepts in the fields of marketing and events as well as as a visual artist and author. Liedtke is a thinker and researcher whose partly intuitive, partly conscious access to insights from various disciplines of the humanities and natural sciences forms the inspiration for his artistic work and his work as an author. In other words: as an artist and author, Liedtke communicates the insights of his perception, interpretation and intuition in different forms and using different media. He uses the form of expression that seems adequate to him for the content in question. This is how works of art such as pictures and collages, which abstract complex scientific processes or conditions, were and are created.
Liedtke's creative work thus reminds us of artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, who also used their creativity interdisciplinarily, breaking down the usual divisions between matter and mind, scientific knowledge and artistic fantasy. And like da Vinci's works, the Liedtkes also identify him as a visionary, a person who is often years ahead of scientific research in the consequences of his thinking and acting as an artist. How such a thing is possible still requires final clarification. The fact that it is possible is indisputably proven by corresponding testimonies and records. With his art formula, which Dieter W. Liedtke developed between 1969 and 1988, he has created an instrument with which not only can all people be granted simplified access to viewing works of art of all styles and epochs, it also serves to stimulate the creative potential of its users. This effect can be proven by scientific research results.
His latest work on the world formula, which will be published in 2007, represents the next stage in Liedtke's work. Liedtke's artistic works, which were created in the context of his work on the "art formula" and were in part visionary at the time of their creation, have a special art-historical value due to this context. If, with regard to the world formula, it turns out that the natural sciences also agree with it, the same applies to all of Liedtke's visionary works - and to an even greater extent.
2. consideration of the work in a humanistic context
In fact, the works of Dieter W. Liedtke, which gave shape to his visions of the abstraction of visual art, are comparable in their significance to the sketches and models of Leonardo da Vinci, because they recorded and presented real and significant scientific findings at a time when the respective scientific disciplines themselves were still far from them. And this can be proven: In the year 2000 the American neurobiologist Prof. Dr. Eric Kandel received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his research results which were anticipated by Dieter W. Liedtke by 20 years and documented in his book The Consciousness of Matter (published 1982). In 2006, American researchers Dr. Andrew Fire and Dr. Craig Mello received a Nobel Prize for their 1998 discovery of how information controls genes. This is confirmed by Dieter W. Liedtke's works of art from the 70s and 80s: genes and gene programs can be switched on and off. Liedtke's work from 1986 (to the 1990s) goes even further, predicting that even pure non-materialized information, art, and visions can change gene programs, genes, and cells, and that these changes can be positively or negatively controlled (also documented in his books The Consciousness of Matter, 1982 and The Key to Art, 1990, and art open Catalog, 2000), which has been empirically proven in epigenetic and genetic research since 2006.
Liedtke's assumptions, which have since been substantiated by scientific research, formed the basis of his art formula and thus clearly point to its validity. Internationally renowned researchers such as the German sociologist and communication researcher Prof. Dr. Niklas Luhmann, who described Liedtke's works as an evolutionary achievement in 1996, confirm the far-reaching significance of the art formula. This includes the anthropologist, art historian and deputy director of the Hessian State Museum, Prof. Dr. Friedemann Schenk, who in 1999 praised the art formula as a possible theoretical concept for the bio-cultural evolution of mankind as a whole.
Important public figures such as the former Soviet Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev or the Spanish Queen Sofia testify through their support for Liedtke's work to their significance, which extends far beyond the borders of a country.
3. consideration in an art historical context
Internationally renowned art historians such as the former director of the Museum Ludwig der Stadt Köln, Prof. Karl Ruhrberg, and Prof. Dr. Harald Szeemann have recognized Liedtke's work as groundbreaking and democratizing creations that change art history itself. The recognition of Liedtke's findings by the natural sciences, as well as his recognition as a visual artist by internationally renowned personalities and institutions, naturally requires a corresponding appreciation of his work.
In 2005, the Spanish art historian and expert Prof. Don Juan Oliver Fuster, president of the "Assosiacio Independent de Galeristes de Baleares" (AIGAB), set an average minimum value of 24,000 euros per work of art in a court report in Palma for a trial concerning two of Liedtke's intentionally destroyed works of art.
However, the images in question were not those that formulated visionary messages in the context of his interdisciplinary work. Their value is currently over 1 million euros per picture (in this context, Dr. Föhls' expert opinions on two of the artist's sculptures should also be explicitly mentioned, which had already estimated their value at 400,000 euros and 450,000 euros respectively in 2002; in the meantime, the confirmation of the scientific contents expressed in them artistically has long since increased these; an exact quantification is also incumbent upon consideration of his new findings and the creative cycle world formula).
And this value will increase many times over in the coming years when further scientific research will reveal the extent to which Liedtke's visions correspond to the facts and his thoughts, laid down in the art formula and the world formula, will find practical application in the lives of people all over the world.
Just as da Vinci's works on aerodynamics, anatomy or statics today possess corresponding value as world cultural heritage, since they bear witness to the efficiency of a spirit that was far ahead of its time, Dieter W. Liedtke's works will also increase in value according to the dissemination of their contents.
Conclusion: Dieter Walter Liedtke's special ability to intuitively and consciously discover facts about the construction and functioning of the world and his talent to express them in artistic form make him a unique talent whose work can influence and positively change not only the world of the mind but also the lives of all people.
This is an assessment confirmed by renowned personalities and institutions of international standing. His works will gradually increase in value over the coming years as the awareness of the importance of his work spreads; this is of course particularly true of the visionary testimonies to his work, which are already estimated at over 1 million euros. Their value will increase many times over.
A completely new value and price situation will arise for the works of art created by Dieter Liedtke around the world formula, if these, like his previous works, are confirmed by future research in the natural sciences or humanities and if this leads to Nobel Prizes. Not only the value of art for our culture and evolution as a whole, but also its price will, according to the empirically confirmed research results of the world formula, reach a new constantly rising price dimension; this applies especially to Dieter Liedtke's works, which document the research path to the world formula.
December 19, 2006
signed Dr. Herbert Jost-Hof