BY DIANA S.
The current exhibition at the Deichtorhallen,
Jetzt! Junge Malerei in Deutschland (Now!
Painting in Germany Today), has been extended
to August 9. I was fortunate to see it on the
opening night in mid-February and then again
this past week. In those three months since
first seeing Jetzt!, I’d often thought about this
show, which struck me as surprising, given
how scattered and unfocused my thinking in
the last few months has been, and the fact that
this survey of young painters is, on its face,
nothing extraordinary. But there’s something
really satisfying about this exhibition. It’s
not flashy, but rather direct in how simply it
presents painting as a medium in and of itself,
without any obvious (or preachy) curatorial
positions or agendas.
Jetzt! was co-organized by a number of German
museums, and the goal of the curatorial team
was to present a snapshot of painting in
Germany by young artists. The curators define
young in this case as artists from 30-40, which
means that this is the first generation of artists
working in Germany post-reunification.
While that may not sound so significant, it is,
and the result is a fluidity to the presentation
that feels outside history and not bogged
down by it. (Think of the best-known living
German painters and they’re predominantly
male, predominantly occupied by—and
defined by their position in—German history.)
I don’t mean that history is absent from this
survey show, or that the painters selected
to represent “young painters in Germany”
are turning their backs on history, just that
looking at the works feels refreshingly focused
on the medium of painting itself. Which is
the clear intention of the curatorial team: by
confining themselves to artists who work in
the traditional sense of painting on canvas in
two dimensions, they’ve organized a show
Viola Bittl, Untitled V, 2017. Oil in canvas, 180 x 160 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Photo: Joe Clark
Ina Gerken, Untitled (After Laughter), 2019. Acrylic and Japanese paper on
polyester canvas. 180 x 150 cm. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: A. R.
that feels very different from the countless
biennial exhibitions of contemporary art that
occur cyclically throughout the art world.
Yet this show feels international, both despite
and because of the focus on painting in
Germany. The 50-odd painters represented
in the Deichtorhallen show come from all
over Germany, many from the biggest cities
with the richest historical traditions of art
academies and painting programs, including
our own Hamburg and the Hochschule für
Bildende Künste (HfBK). But because Berlin
has lured so many artists from all over the
world in the last few decades, the exhibition
contains work by artists originally from
Iran, from the US, from Italy, who live and
work in Germany. I would argue that no
other European city except London has built
up such an international art scene as Berlin,
and while that certainly isn’t a major focus
in the exhibition, it does mean that what’s
“happening” in painting in Germany is not
limited to a purely national perspective.
Standout painters for me included Pius Fox,
whose small paintings feature geometric
shapes rendered in oil on glass or egg tempera
(an ancient painting medium) on paper; Ina
Gerken, represented by large-scale abstract
paintings in acrylic with quasi-collaged
elements of Japanese paper; Markus Saile,
another small-format painter, who has four
oil-on-wood works, each of which plays with
the idea of brushstrokes and paint; and Stefan
Vogel, who has created large, grid-like works
that push the boundaries of “painting” per se,
with photographs and staples, threads and
language, all included in the mix. But there
are lots of other painters and works that drew
me in, and each visitor will come away with
her own “best of” list. If you go see Jetzt!—
and you really should!—pick up the small
pamphlet for a euro at the ticket counter that
gives more information about each artist
(only in German)—or go all in for the catalog
(available in EN or DE) which is nicely done
and one day might become a reference for
what painting in Germany looked like.
www.awchamburg.org 35