Famous artists do not have a normal life story. Since ancient times, there have been woven around them anecdotes and events which have nothing to do with the actual relationships of their lives. The art scholars Ernst Kris and Otto Kurz described in their richly detailed book Die Legende vom Künstler (The Legend of the Artist, 1934) the long history of the marvelous biographies of artists extending from Antiquity to modern times. In addition to the fact that these legends are often a matter of fascinating and entertaining narratives, they also form the basis for that which is customarily called the myth of the artist. One characteristic of this form of mythologization is the fact that these stories are mostly based upon the same sequence of events, which is intended to demonstrate that the respective person was an extraordinarily gifted individual. Dirk Dietrich Hennig pursues this phenomenon with unswerving logic when he creates biographies of important artists, composers or poets according to his own imagination. In this enterprise he proceeds, just like the chroniclers of legends, from actual situations, people and places, but he not only embellishes his tales as they do, but he also invents an entirely new person who is embodied by himself and fits perfectly into the respective situation. This is an act of perfection which imbues an historical process with a dramaturgy that enhances the actual course of events. These freely invented persons are interesting in many respects, and their stories are suitable for stimulating the imagination of the recipients. With a wealth of ideas he creates additions and makes insertions into existing relationships. Thus his works have less to do with fakes or counterfeit art, even when he creates works supposedly by other artists, and are more aptly situated in the tradition of institutional critique, for example when Asger Jorn paints upon the already existing paintings of other artists, or when Rodney Graham inserts a text as a supplement into a book by Sigmund Freud. Dirk Dietrich Hennig himself designates his artistic actions as historical interventions, for they are directed against a naïve credulity with regard to history. For Hennig, historical truths are relative. The concept of truth is subjected to questioning as the product of a hegemonial discourseÞcorresponding to the thesis of Michel Foucault that the one who has the power determines what is true, beautiful and good. The institutions of power and their strategies for purveying truthÞand this includes not least of all museumsÞare thereby thrown open to discussion. With the fictional biographies of Dirk Dietrich Hennig, history is radically subjectivized, and the artist is rediscovered as a teller of tales.