Klaus Fußmann: People and Landscapes
Parallel to Max Beckmann: The World as a Stage, thirty-nine paintings by Klaus Fußmann were presented that featured a major theme in his work: people in landscapes.
Klaus Fußmann has been exploring people within spatial settings since the 1970s. Early on, he began replacing depictions in interiors with figures in landscapes that confront their viewers head-on. The subjects are often friends or relatives of the painter, but they may also be figures from fairy tales or mythology. Since the 1980s, the painter has also included self-portraits in the landscapes, often appearing outdoors in large mirrors. For the past fifteen years his application of paint has become thicker, turning the picture space into a tactile experience.
People and Landscapes was shown at the Museum Barberini in celebration of Klaus Fußmann’s eightieth birthday and ran parallel to the exhibition Max Beckmann: The World as a Stage. An artist’s book with contributions by Jürgen Fitschen and Heinz Spielmann as well as forty-two image texts by Klaus Fußmann was published by Edition Peerlings in conjunction with the exhibition.
Retrospect
The Potsdam show was the first exhibition devoted to a central theme in the artist’s work: people in landscapes. Works for the exhibition at the Museum Barberini were received on loan from various private collections. Large solo shows of Klaus Fußmann’s work have also been presented in venues including the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, and the Kunsthalle Bremen.
