WUNDERSAME 

WELTEN

“The absurd, presented with taste, evokes aversion and admiration.” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

It is the break with the purportedly beautiful that unites the Old Masters all the way to contemporary artists shown in this exhibition in their work. Their works evoke contrary associations, thoughts, and feelings – one can hardly escape them and becomes automatically emotionally involved.

It seems as if every viewer has a different opinion about what they seek to grasp when they see the pictures, objects, and sculptures. This art polarizes. Lifelike meets absurd and fantastic, beauty unites with savagery, reality becomes an illusion, the fabulous charms us and sends a shiver down our backs.

The motifs seem familiar and alien at the same time. It is a delightful and yet a fractured beauty, which threatens to plunge into the morbid and nightmarish at any moment, without evil becoming directly tangible. While one may feel a slight unease, one has long given in to the seduction of something never seen before.

Artists: Nicole Bianchet, GL Brierley, Martin Denker, Max Ernst, Jean Tinguely und Eva Aeppli, Marianna Gartner, Kerstin Grimm, Uwe Henneken, Paul Klee, Gustav Kluge, Dirk Lange, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz, René Magritte, Charles Matton, Kate MccGwire, David Nicholson, Daniel Richter, Josef Scharl, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, Carolein Smit, Dimitris Tzamouranis, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Thomas Virnich, Wols, Aloys Zötl et al.