30.04. – 29.06.2019


WINFRIED MUTHESIUS
GENIUS LOCI

After the first exhibition in 2016, Galerie Springer Berlin is delighted to present two new series by the artist Winfried Muthesius. True to his style, he is again working with a cross-border approach, layering several tiers of painting and photography on top of each other, so that the different image elements become intertwined and create completely new realities in which parts of the photographic element almost completely withdraw or largely recede into the background.

Galerie Springer Berlin is presenting two series in the current exhibition. The first, Genius Loci, which gives the exhibition its name, emerged in Berlin at ‘non-places’, such as former industrial sites on the edge of the Moabit district and around Zoo Station. In complete contrast is the Triomphe series, which originated in Paris at monumental and central locations such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and the Seine, close to the Place Concorde.

In both series’ works, the clichés that we associate with these locations interestingly disappear. The glamour of Paris and the dirt, stench and inhospitality of the ‘Berlin non-places’ merge, creating space for a new quality that can be poetic, violent, destructive and fascinating, and which sometimes comes very close to abstraction.

The exhibition is complemented with some of the artist’s pioneering works: a selection from the golden field (gold leaf on wood) series, a large-format piece from the Schädelbilder (oil paint on wood) series and a short succession of ink drawings from the Stadtlandschaften series.

About Winfried Muthesius: Born in Berlin in 1957, Muthesius lives and works in Berlin and Drewen, Brandenburg. He studied painting at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin (Hdk) – now the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK) – from 1979–1984. Numerous exhibitions followed at home and abroad. His works are included in numerous private and public collections, for example at the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin.