Paint it all! Aktuelle Malerei aus Berlin
Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
12 October 2022 – 2 February 2023

Painting repeatedly occupies a central position in contemporary art discourse. Like hardly any other medium, it stands for recurrence and ruptures, questioning and also constant reformulation.

Painting has a long tradition in Berlin. While the medium was repeatedly declared dead in other places, people in the divided city and after the fall of the Wall simply continued to paint. The exhibition Paint it all! is an appeal and a declaration of love for contemporary Berlin painting. It picks out ten remarkable positions and, with 15 selected works, aims to be more of a teaser than an inventory. There is still much to discover.

Berlin themes or a special Berlin style cannot be identified. Gone is the old argument between abstraction and figuration, gone is also the transfiguration of subculture and subjectivity into a new Berlin myth. Likewise, the proverbial coolness of the city has given way to a self-evident internationality. As a result, the place of production can hardly be discerned from works anymore. So how does the city’s painting present itself? In the exhibition vital, diverse, serene and with a great interest in tradition and discourse. The grasp to brush and color is apparently still simply obvious to deal with the world and questions of painting. The works come from the collection of the Berlinische Galerie and are for the most part on view for the first time in the rooms of the museum.

Photos by Roman März