German artist Immendorff dies at age 61

BERLIN, May 28 (Reuters) German expressionist artist Joerg Immendorff, famous for his surreal and provocative paintings and sculptures, died today at age 61 in Duesseldorf after a long illness, his wife Oda Jaune-Immendorff said.

A leading German artist famed for his work as well as his flamboyant lifestyle, Immendorff was diagnosed in 1998 with degenerative amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

He was born in June 1945, when Germany lay in ruins after World War Two. Much of Immendorff's art addressed the enduring impact of that conflict on German postwar identity.

His marriage in 2000 to a former student who was 30 years younger was splashed across the tabloids. They had a daughter in 2001.

His wife and Immendorff's doctor were quoted in German media today saying he died from a heart attack.

Immendorff left secondary school in 1963 at the age of 17 to begin his studies at the Art Academy in Duesseldorf. His art adopted an increasingly radical tone in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his ''Lidl'' concept -- a nonsensical artistic parody.

Immendorff went on to create his most celebrated work, the ''Cafe Deutschland'' series, between 1977-82 that dealt with the Cold War division of Germany.

He was awarded important art prizes during the 1980s and 1990s, including the world's best endowed prize, the Marco from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey, Mexico, in 1997. He also won the German Bundesverdienstkreuz, or medal of merit.

Immendorff became an art professor in Frankfurt in 1989 and later Duesseldorf in 1997, where he had been kicked out as a student years before.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, an admirer and friend of Immendorff, asked the artist to paint his official portrait, which was presented in January 2007.

Immendorff's personal life made headlines again in 2003 when Duesseldorf police detained him during a cocaine-fuelled orgy with several prostitutes at a luxury hotel.

He admitted at his trial in 2004 that he had organised 27 other orgies between 2001 and 2003. He was sentenced to 11 months probation and a 150,000 euro fine. He had first been suspended from the university but then reinstated.

Despite losing control of his left hand, the one he had painted with throughout most of his life, Immendorff remained an active artist and teacher until shortly before his death.

''The illness has brought me closer to myself than I've ever been. I have become more concentrated in thought,'' Immendorff told the weekly Zeit newspaper in October 2005. ''I would have really loved to have this concentration earlier.'' REUTERS KK KP2107