Light, colour, materiality. These are perhaps the most significant components of Wolfgang Kessler’s (b. 1962) paintings. An additional characteristic is the tranquillity and introversion of the figures, who are usually depicted individually before a black background. In contemporary painting, this practice is unusual. At the same time, it touches upon recollected images and a notion of beauty that are buried in our cultural memory. When the question arises as to whether painting is or may be beautiful, one likes to look far back to art-historical frames of reference. One might arrive, for instance, at Delacroix’s works, which started to engage with subjects that extended beyond the common notion of beauty.

Terribly Beautiful - Wolfgang Kessler is a painter of quiet yet aggressive, power. The comprehensive publication offers a detailed insight into Wolfgang Kessler's complete paintings from 2013-2022.

Text in English and German.