When Juewen Zhang paints, he likes to twist an eraser back and forth between his fingers.

Coal and pens that have already discolored the red cover are lying on his swivel chair.

He draws one hair after the other with great concentration, one picture after the other.

It shows very different people, whose oversized heads can be seen from above, as if one had risen a little above all those whose personalities are now emerging in a turbulent vortex or a few strands of blue.

Most people like to look at the hairline, it can be greasy and flaky, gray or already sparse. The twenty-six-year-old has already painted around 20 such vertexes, none of which are alike. Some of them could be seen at the end of October in the annual exhibition of the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) in Offenbach.

Juewen Zhang, who was born in Berlin to Chinese parents, is the first and so far only regular student with an autism spectrum disorder at the university.

Since he was 16 years old, he has been working artistically in the Atelier Goldstein in Frankfurt, an institution of the Lebenshilfe for artists with cognitive impairment, for whose structural extension FAZ readers can donate this year.

His parents recognized his talent early on and introduced him to the studio.

There he was also the first to complete the vocational training path that he would otherwise have had to complete in a workshop for people with disabilities.

Afraid to take him in

For founding director Christiane Cuticchio, it quickly became clear that the talented Jew Zhang would do well to meet other talented young people. So the studio contacted art colleges in Germany - and only received rejections. Not because of a lack of talent. But because of the difficulties that should have been faced. "Nobody said it was too bad, but everyone was afraid of what its inclusion would have meant for their own system," says Sophia Edschmid, manager of Atelier Goldstein.

Only Heiner Blum, Professor of Experimental Spatial Concepts at the HfG, where Zhang is currently studying, wanted to try it and initially offered him a guest position. The atelier employees set off on a tough ride through the German bureaucracy to get a paid assistance for Juewen Zhang, as every physically handicapped student receives. Blum, then Dean of Studies, made sure that the experiment worked properly in terms of form.

After a year, Zhang was initially accepted as a guest student for four semesters, after which he had to pass the entrance exam like everyone else.

“We made an exception with him because it was the first time that we admitted someone with a diagnosed autistic disorder,” says Blum.

“On the other hand, every good artist is different from other people anyway, he has completely different attentions.

Everyone who studies here is not normal in the classical sense. "

Among the top ten percent

Two thirds of the studies at the HfG are practical and one third are theoretical. That was the biggest hurdle for his admission, because, according to Blum, his portfolio immediately convinced everyone. The theoretical seminars, for example with the philosopher Juliane Rebentisch, are on an abstract level, comparable to studying the humanities at a university. “It was clear from the outset that he would not be able to keep up with the level.” During the entrance exam, there was also a word problem, the students were supposed to provide directions. “He then described the S-Bahn stops on his daily journey, and that sounded like contemporary poetry,” says Blum. One had to circumnavigate the study regulations a little, but at the same time also watched"That we strictly observe them and do not create any special conditions for him".