This is an impressive retrospective of a living artist - one considered by other artists, to be the greatest living painter. There were 14 rooms of contrasts, contradictions, continuities and creativity. I was impressed by his journey from Dresden, where he was born in 1932 and left in 1961, through Duesseldorf to Cologne. There seems to be a logical development of his talent which mirrors his significant personal experiences. Perhaps he was too young to fully understand the dreadful and futile bombing of Dresden - but he seems to have taken on a duty to represent what happened during and after the war, with the building and fall of the Wall, without showing any emotional connection or commitment. He is an impassive reporter than can paint to a photographic level, but often chooses to blur reality to soften the effect and distance the viewer.
He experiments logically with colour and texture. From the 3 basic colours he systematically developed 1092 different shades, and then repeated each one 4 times in a random manner in a giant grid - skilful and spectacular. In the same room we saw grey painted glass, and a large finger painting begun as blobs of paint on a canvas.
Later we saw abstract colour explosions, small and large, using different sized brushes and sponges. There seemed to be an increased raw energy in his later life, although he kept reflecting what was happening in the world through an impressive collage of paintings matched to newspaper texts of the beginning of the Iraq war and a stunning painting of the collapsing twin towers.
I came away impressed with his analytical creativity and his breadth of capabilities, but without a strong emotional connection to him or his life. Perhaps emotions had to be controlled to survive and focus on developing his paintely skills... and it was good to enjoy continued birthday celebrations with Steph - coffee and lunch in the Friends Room and a convenient drive to and from London.
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