Andreas Wachter

Paintings and Sculptures


May 13th - July 29th 2018


Opening on Sunday May 13th, 11:30 a.m.

Greetings by: Gudrun Thiessen-Schneider

Introduction: Victoria Hilsberg, Art Historian (Leipzig)





Artist talk on Sunday, June 17th 2018, 11:30 a.m.


Slide show lecture "The Light in Painting. From the Renaissance to the Modern Age".

Speaker: Siegfried Hentke. Date: Wednesday, June 20th, 7:30 p.m.

“Nichts erklären- beleuchten” (Explain Nothing- Illuminate) Andreas Wachter belongs to a generation of Leipzig artists (known as the Leipzig School) who are connected to the Italian Renaissance paintings and mannerisms which were important sources for their work in the 1970s. He still uses this means of expression to show strangeness and alienation from the present. The view of his spatial scenes and landscapes create a déjà vu experience for the observer, which tends to always resonates with something enigmatic.This impression is achieved through encoded contents, quotations and references from art history. The light direction reminiscent of Caravaggio, is closely seen through the selectively set colours that reinforce this association. After 1989, better known as the "turning point", Wachter did a lot of traveling around the world (Italy, USA, etc.). His travels allowed him to see several local views (unable to be witnessed before) and inspired society with many new motifs (e.g. pictures of cities). Wachter now composes motifs from seemingly different time periods, each in a technique perfected by old masters.Motifs and compositions are handed down pieces of art history combined with contemporary elements and updated or taken to absurdity. This is a decision between "good for the old" and "bad for the new" which are formulated from the meaning of "one to be tested by the other".

Andreas Wachter, born in 1951 from Chemnitz was a student at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (University for Graphic and Book Arts) in Leipzig from 1974 to 1980. He went to school with Arno Rink (known as a pioneer of the Leipzig School) along with Volker Stelzmann.Today Wachter is recognized to be one of the most important representatives of his generation and the Leipzig School. His works can be seen at the Museum der bildenden Künste (Museum of Fine Arts) in Leipzig, the Nationalgalerie Posen, the Pushkin Museum Moscow and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. The Kunstverein will show 19 of Wachter’s paintings which will include three terracotta sculptures and a coloured bronze sculpture. This exhibition focuses on his on works from the time period between 1998 and 2018.

List of exhibited works here

The exhibition is supported by the municipality of Neuenhaus and the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony. 

A catalogue of the exhibition has been published.