Goethe Institut-Sofia and Sofia Art Gallery have the pleasure of presenting contemporary German art exhibition. 30 paintings by 12 artists exemplify the most recent trends in the development of German painting.

Traditional painting has been out of the public interest, as conceptual strategies and experimenting with new expressive means became dominant. Since the 90’s, however, representatives belonging to the generation of the youngest German artists working on the territory of United Germany have been actively redirecting themselves to painting. Different, mostly figurative artistic languages have started to appear.

Their painting has a new global aesthetics, defined by photography and film-making, by computer graphics and industrial design. In the paintings exhibited, traditional figurative languages are linked to the 20th century typical expressionist and socialist realism styles. Thus, a new kind of universal situating of fashion as styles, unique for each artist, is created. The power of the works is born from the contradiction between video games and neo surrealism, nostalgia and revision of the old, expressiveness and cool objectiveness.

During the past years, paintings by Neo Rauch, Franz Ackermann and more artists have conquered not only the international expressive art markets but also museums and exhibition halls from Western Europe, the USA and Japan. The Ute and Rudolf Scharpff family of collectors have been far-sighted about this new painting well before its boom. The present exhibition features selected works from their collection.

The exhibition features works by: Franz Ackermann, André Butzer, Eberhard Havekost, Andreas Hofer, Martin Kobe, Jonathan Meese, Albert Oehlen, Neo Rauch, Daniel Richter, David Schnell, Markus Selg, Matthias Weischer.

Curator: Nina Zimmer

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in German and Bulgarian language.