After an extremely warm reception at the State Representation of Rhineland-Palatinat, my exhibition of the Symbols of Democracy paintings has just finished on December 14th. The exhibition combined paintings of the European, French and German institutions - the former government buildings in Bonn, the Bundesrat and the Bundestag as well as the Sénat in Paris. The paintings have been presented in the beautiful hall of the State Representation, flooded with light, for a month.
The opening on November 9th had been a very touching moment, with more than 100 visitors, including all the people who had seen me paint on the various bridges, by the Spree and in front of the Chancellery, and had supported my Symbols of Democracy series. Many thanks at this point to Dr. Georg Kleemann, the vice-president of the German Bundesrat, Wolfgang Büchner, Germany’s deputy government spokesman, Georg Link, the SWR-correspondent, and the many other supporters.
Nicholas Bamberger created a beautiful atmosphere with his piano improvisations, perfectly fitting the light colours of this „walk" through the Berlin government area and the different institutions.
I had started the series of these large scale paintings in 2019 with the European Parliament in Strasbourg and the European Court of Human Rights. Worried about the future of Europe after the Brexit referendum and a visit to Poland in 2018, I thought it important to fix and illustrate the places where democracy had a home and history.
In summer 2020, I continued with another cause personally important to me: the German Reunification, and its celebration 30 years later. The gouvernement area in Berlin, constructed on the former wall zone, seemed to me a particularly significant place:
democratic institutions on an ancient border between two systems, where people had taken risks and lost their lives.
In her speech at the opening Heike Raab, Secretary of State of Rhineland-Palatinat, linked the two crucial events on November 9th: The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, and the „Reichsprogromnacht“ in 1938.
The effects of both events are visible in my painting of the view from the terrasse of the State Representation of Rhineland-Palatinat I was able to paint in spring 2021 - the glass dome on the Reichstag building and the holocaust memorial. The exhibition used this painting as a center piece:
Many thanks to Katharina Matros, press and public relations officer of the State Representation of Rhineland-Palatinat in 2021, who made it possible to paint the view from the terrace.
The exhibition will be on view in 2023
in May: German Consulate in Wroclaw, Poland
in September: Rhineland-Palatinate State Representation in Brussels, Belgium
in November: World Forum of Democracy in Strasbourg, France
You find a detailed German article about the exhibition in:
Image source: Uwe Bohrer