Stefan Plenkers – Space and signs

The Städtische Galerie Dresden is dedicating a major special exhibition to the work of Stefan Plenkers, one of the most important painter personalities of the 20th century in Dresden. Stefan Plenkers' paintings from the 1980s are at the centre of the exhibition. Stefan Plenkers drew inspiration for his paintings directly from the places he frequented: beaches and harbours, studios and circuses, urban spaces and pubs. However, the artist does not process all these scenes in a narrative way; rather, he creates obstructed spaces that do not offer any sense of security. Plunging lines stop the viewer's gaze, causing it to bounce and bump. Stefan Plenkers obstructs the view from the inside to the outside - be it of a cityscape or the sea - by inserting walls, half-closed doors or interlocking paintings. They abruptly collide and tilt, so that the viewer must first find their way through the picture. In doing so, the painter emphasises the motifs more and more in a two-dimensional way, making them increasingly concise. Stefan Plenkers' works reveal his intensive preoccupation with the construction of pictorial spaces. The artist works with the structure of surfaces and the interplay between inside and outside. Through painting and drawing, he poses the general question of living spaces. Travelling to West Berlin, China and France at the end of the 1980s led to an overflowing explosion of forms. As if Stefan Plenkers needed to increase the speed with which he visually processed his impressions, he increasingly worked with abbreviated forms and allusions. This process towards fragmented fragments can also be traced in the exhibition by means of a large number of drawings.