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until 30.01.| #4066ARTatBerlin | Galerie Brockstedt shows from 9th November 2023 the exhibition “A look into her picture worlds from 1964 to 2023” with paintings and drawings by the artist Natascha Ungeheuer.
“Natascha Ungeheuer is a painting utopian of the German language.”
Johannes Schenk
“Natascha Ungeheuer was born Ursula Rosa Ungeheuer in Blumenfeld. She spent her childhood in Biederbach (Black Forest). She went to school in Freiburg (Breisgau). High school diploma in Stuttgart. Teacher’s examination at the Pedagogical University of Lüneburg in 1959, followed by dance academy Harald Kreuzberg in Bern. From 1961 she traveled through England, Ireland, Finland, France and Italy.
In 1962 she came to Berlin. She drew more and more frequently. Oil painting soon followed. She took no art lessons and was consciously self-taught. She sought no models in art and gave her painting style no name. Her old master style of painting with the finest brushes depicts people. ‘Phantasmagorical realism’ would be an obvious term that best describes her painting. From 1966 (Kunsthalle Netzel in Worpswede) she had exhibitions at home and abroad. From 1964 to 2006 she lived in Berlin and Worpswede with her partner Johannes Schenk, who died suddenly on December 4, 2006. From 1969-1975 she acted in the Kreuzberg street theater, painted stage sets and made masks. She also illustrated books and her pictures often ended up on book covers. Now she lives in Berlin.”
“It is very conceivable that the glory of life lies around everyone and always ready in all its fullness, but imposed, in the depths, invisible, very far. But it lies there, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. Call her by the right word, by the right name, and she comes. That is the essence of magic, which does not create, but calls.”
Franz Kafka, Diaries1921
It is as if Franz Kafka had written these words on her body: The picture poet Natascha Ungeheuer, whose humorously twinkling dark eyes still sparkle with indomitable curiosity and lust for life to this day.
Natascha Ungeheuer, “Aufgeklappter Bürokrat”, 1977, 50 x 60 cm,
oil on canvas, Copyright: Wallstein-Verlag Göttingen
From the very beginning, she has had an unmistakable visual language that always circles around the human being, with everything – good and bad – that he carries around with him. With her exuberant narrative joy, she literally captures densely concentrated life on her pictures, lovingly engaging in extensive masterful fine work on every detail, no matter how small, which can sometimes contribute to deciphering her message.
Natascha Ungeheuer, “An dünnen Fäden”, 2002, 120 x 90 cm,
oil on canvas, Copyright: Wallstein-Verlag Göttingen
With a sharp analytical eye, she puts the human psyche in all its manifestations in the spotlight and explains the narrated connections down to the smallest detail. What initially appears to the viewer as a dream due to her bubbling imagination, she portrays as unadorned truth. And as if she wanted to underline this, one not infrequently discovers recognizable figures of her own life reality – often herself and Johannes Schenk.
The painter generously invites us to linger in her very personal stories, to delve into them. Only when we look closely do her pictorial puzzles reveal themselves and they emerge anew from a variety of familiar symbols and allegories in our own imagination, touching our own images in our soul and stimulating us to make associations.
Natascha Ungeheuer, “Freispiel nach 687 points”, 1970, 60 x 70 cm,
oil on canvas, Copyright: Wallstein-Verlag Göttingen
Isn’t it precisely our very personal stories, this unmistakable trace of ourselves, that give each other the emotional support we need in the midst of the modern world of increasing economic, digital and scientific objectification and, not least, moral absurdity? In sharing these stories, we encourage each other.
Natascha Ungeheuer, “Einstein trinkt Kaffee bei Oma Flügger”, 1981, 150 x 110 cm,
oil on canvas, copyright: Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen
We may listen here to a fiery storyteller who, with humor and a twinkle in her eye, conceals nothing and yet knows the magic magic word for the ‘glory of life’: its fullness in all its facets, whose forms and colors she captures with sure brushstrokes. These paintings do our soul good. If we let ourselves in on their mysterious magic power, they give us a quiet hope.
Barbara Brockstedt, M.A.
Opening: Thursday, 09 November 2023, 18:00 – 21:00 hrs
Exhibiton dates: Thursday, 09 November – Tuesday, 30 January 2024
Finissage: Saturday, 27. January 2024, from 5:00 Uhr, with a concert by CLUBCOMBO WEST
To the Gallery
Caption title: Natascha Ungeheuer, “Der Klavierspieler zieht um”, 1993, 130 x 100 cm, oil on canvas, Copyright: Wallstein-Verlag Göttingen
Exhibition Natascha Ungeheuer – Galerie Brockstedt | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Ausstellungen Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin
