Masuhr. Dreamily beautiful pictures
Masuhr. Traumschönen Bilder was the first major solo show of work by a contemporary German artist at the nGbK. Dieter Masuhr (1938–2015) was a painter, writer, and illustrator; his large-format paintings show portraits, nudes, still lifes, and landscapes, as well as political motifs drawn from current affairs. The working group did not want to launch a historical appraisal, present a piece of the past, or cater to the art market; instead, as they write in the foreword to the catalogue, “we allow ourselves the honesty of asking subjective and curious questions, rather than the usual approach of intimidating the viewer with supposed objectivity.” The color plates are all reproduced to the same scale, preserving the correct relationship between their sizes. Some pages fold out, and there is a change of paper and layout for a central section with poems. In a short text at the end of the book, the artist puts his own work in context.

Ed.: nGbK

Work group: Ursula Frohne, Annette Gerlach, Michael de Groot, Reinhold Grün, Agathe Haag, Dieter Masuhr, Karlheinz Nowald, Barbara Straka

With contributions by: Dieter Masuhr, amongst others