Georg Tappert attended the Fine Arts Academy of Karlsruhe from 1900 to 1903. He studied as an independent student in Berlin in 1905 and 1906, and in Worpswede from 1907 to 1909.
In 1910 he co-founded the School of Visual and Applied Arts of Berlin and the New Berlin Secession, with Pechstein, among others. He participated in exhibitions with members of the Secession until 1914. In 1912 he took part in the second Blaue Reiter exhibition in Munich.
After serving in the army during the war, in 1918 he became a member of the Novembergruppe in Berlin. From 1919 to 1937, Tappert taught at the National Fine Arts School in Berlin. Hitler’s rise to power in 1937 ushered in a long period of ostracism for the artist. First, he was dismissed from his teaching position, then his paintings were removed from German public collections, and finally he was banned from engaging in any sort of artistic activity.
In 1945 Tappert’s house was destroyed during a bombing raid. Around a hundred of his paintings were burned and only a small number saved. During the same year, at the age of 65, he decided to quit painting and devote the rest of his life to rebuilding the Fine Arts Academy.
Tappert’s early paintings reveal the influence of masters such as Gauguin, Cézanne and Munch, but later the artist joined the German expressionist movement, using a deliberately rudimentary technique to depict scenes from brothels and cabarets.
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