Page 49 - Studio International - February 1969

interpretation: 'Only with cold precision has the cold and unemotional presentation. In
one access to the fires of the soul, and only contrast to Klapheck, Leissler and Opper-
under cover of jest can one express what mann, Wintersberger does not formally
one has seen'. In Klapheck's work, the thing stylize his subjects—he uses the methods of
he represents has become so much a matter of New Objectivity rather to intensify the
the picture itself that his works transmit as expressiveness of his theme. Wintersberger
it were the quintessence of the aims of this represents cruelty in its most terrible aspect—
second New Objective generation— the picture clean, sterile cruelty.
of the object is made to become so much a In Wintersberger's work the tradition against
matter of course that it becomes, in effect, the which New Objectivity arose in protest re-
object of the picture. appears: Expressionism. This shows that even
6 It should be stressed, however, that the oppo- those tendencies that consciously oppose this
Lambert Maria Wintersberger
Violation 1968 site method also leads to artistically viable characteristic of German art are themselves
acrylic on canvas results in the framework of New Objectivity. susceptible to it. But perhaps this itself might
67 x 79¾ in.
Galerie Muller The work of Lambert Maria Wintersberger be seen as German art's proper contribution
(b. 1941) joins an almost abstract presentation to the international scene—a cool, restrained
7
Arnold Leissler to a thoroughly figurative statement. The artist expressionism, free of the violent bombast of
Circle-square composition 1964
oil on canvas uses pictorial means of truly cosmetic tender- the unqualified gesture. Richard Lindner is
10¼ x 9⅞ in. ness to provide the thematic material for one of the pioneering protagonists of such a
8 aggressive, painful subjects. Paint of extreme sublimated 'expression'. It is true that no
Wolfgang Oppermann
Coloured figure 1966 artificiality in its transparency and modula- younger artist has so far reached his standard.
colour etching tion—a 'doped' use of colour—is applied to the Nevertheless, this second generation suggests
20⅞ x 31½ in.
representation of a pyschological reality that that an end to the figurative painting which
9
Lambert Maria Wintersberger insistently and urgently 'goes home'. The stood under the fatal star of Expressionism
Double violation 1968 detailed brutality of the themes—mouths and may be in sight.
acrylic on canvas •
67 x 791 in. fingernails—is, however, in no way lightened by