December 8, 2019 – February 13, 2020
From December 8, 2019, GALERIE MESSMER will be presenting the curiously idyllic dream landscapes by Joachim Lehrer. With mysterious and surreal charm, the poetic stagings of landscapes of Lehrer sketch dystopian-seeming places of silence .
Abandoned and deserted , the main motifs of Lehrer’s paintings are mostly automobiles that have succumbed to the ravages of time, dilapidated cultural artifacts and other objects of technical progress. Wrapped in soft light and pastel colors, Lehrer’s works balance between forlornness and harmony .
Like the painters of the Romantic period , Lehrer raises questions about our future and, with its extensive, melancholic scenes , invites contemplative contemplation .
Before Joachim Lehrer, who was born in Reutlingen in 1954 , became a freelance artist in 1983, he worked as a young man between 1974 and 1975 as a truck driver, initially studied electrical engineering, but switched to German studies , rhetoric and art history from 1976 onwards. A fact that is still reflected in his imagery today. Not only has his love for automobiles remained, but his work is also inspired by the technical sophistication of the old masters .
Teacher uses an elaborate resin oil glazing technique from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods, which is hardly used today, with which he creates a supernatural deep light in his paintings and at the same time manages to achieve a traceless, photorealistic effect.
His work fascinates the art world. Almost 200 national and international exhibitions were dedicated to him. Today, Joachim Lehrer is represented in many important international collections because of his extraordinary pictorial worlds – including the Reinhold Würth Collection, the Fantastic Museum in Vienna, and the Princess of Hesse Collection.