Biography

Norbert M. Gregor was born on January 8, 1920, the third of five children, to Katharina
and Karl Gregor in Munich. His father was a typesetter. After eight years of elementary
school, Gregor apprenticed in carpentry and jointery and received top marks on his final
examination. He began to paint as a child, and his artistic talent was already apparent
at the time. At the age of 19, Gregor was called up for military service.
He took part in two campaigns of the German Wehrmacht in France and Russia.
He received a bullet wound and was treated in a military hospital.

In 1943, Gregor completed the entrance exam at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste
in Munich. He passed the examination with distinction and then became a student of
Professor Henselmann. Influenced by his own traumatic war experiences, Gregor later
created the impressive wooden sculpture of a group of persons fleeing danger.

In April 1944, Gregor married his great love Frida Jetzlsperger. The couple had nine
children. The family spent the first years in Gailenberg/Bad Hindelang (Allgäu) – near the
expressionist painter Paula Modersohn-Becker, with whom Gregor maintained a lively
artistic discourse.

In 1950 he purchased property for a home for his family in Greater Munich; he and his
brother Hannes built it with their own hands. From this time on he lived as a freelance
artist in the Bavarian capital of Munich.
After an expansive creative period Norbert M. Gregor received international recognition
for the first time in 1970.

The exhibition “Salon International Automne 1970” organized by Vallombreuse Gallery
in Biarritz, France, gave him the opportunity to present his work together with artists such
as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Georges Braque, Max Ernst and Alberto Giacometti.

Norbert M. Gregor was awarded the International Diploma of Honour and his work
has been published in the journals "Steinmetz" and "sculptor".

Gregor kept up correspondence with several international artists.
He cultivated a long-standing friendship with Cesar Manrique, an architect whose work
helped shape the island of Lanzarote.

Norbert M. Gregor died in a hospital Munich on February 1, 2000 after a brief illness.