Wolf­gang Mattheu­er at the Kunst­hal­le Ros­tock: Dra­wings as a Dis­co­very

The Kunst­hal­le Ros­tock is pre­sen­ting an ex­tra­or­di­na­ry sel­ec­tion of dra­wings by Wolf­gang Mattheu­er (1927–2004) that have never be­en ex­hi­bi­ted be­fo­re. From an ex­ten­si­ve coll­ec­tion of al­most 1000 works on pa­per, works will be shown that shed light on the ar­tis­t’s ear­ly crea­ti­ve ye­ars in par­ti­cu­lar. De­pic­tions of land­scapes and tra­vel im­pres­si­ons cha­rac­te­ri­se the­se ear­ly and in­ter­me­dia­te works, so­me of which still ap­pear aca­de­mic and na­tu­ra­li­stic. Ho­we­ver, the­se dra­wings al­re­a­dy reve­al crea­ti­ve ten­den­ci­es that he­rald Mattheu­er’s la­ter un­mist­aka­ble pic­to­ri­al lan­guage.

This fo­cus­sed ex­hi­bi­ti­on reve­als a young ar­tis­t’s search for ex­pres­si­on, di­rec­tion and style. Vi­si­tors will gain a new and ex­ci­ting per­spec­ti­ve on one of the most im­portant pain­ters of the GDR and co-foun­der of the Leip­zig School. The sel­ec­tion of works in­vi­tes vi­si­tors to re­trace and re­dis­co­ver Mattheu­er’s crea­ti­ve de­ve­lo­p­ment and his strugg­le for ar­tis­tic iden­ti­ty.