The current exhibition at the Gallery Bernhard Bischoff is dedicated to representational or figurative „drawing“. Throughout the centuries, drawing has been considered only as a means to an end; and yet even renaissance art theorists described drawing as the most pristine of all art forms – the first idea, the effortless implementation of the original. For this very reason, works on paper have never lost their appeal and are still popular with contemporary artists – even if, the classical definition of drawing (metal pin/charcoal on paper) has been gradually broadened in favour of a broader understanding of the genre.

The gallery shows works by four artists, who have been represented for many years by Bernhard Bischoff’s gallery: Samuel Blaser, Katia Bourdarel, Kotscha Reist and Erich Weiss. Even though they all work figurative, their works are all very different: Samuel Blaser effortlessly puts episodes from life on paper. His oil paintings are composed by found fragments – mostly photographs from his strolls and travels, but sometimes also remote memories, which melt into pictures. Similar to a puppet theatre, the artist puts his characters into detached environments, condenses and produces his stories with them. Katia Bourdarel shows delicate sheets full of biting pitfalls – picture stories, fairy tales without a starting or ending point. In a subtle way she arranges at first sight beautiful, poetic motives, which at second sight evolve into traumatic compositions. She’s a master in weaving narratives – and without telling the ending she offers various possibilities to further develop the stories. Kotscha Reist’s works are based on photographs, which he interprets deliberately and transfers sometimes even altered onto the medium. Most of his references are from magazines and newspapers; but often he also uses his own or found photographs. At times shadowy and modest, at times vigorously staged, the spectators are confronted with a cosmos of relevancy and history. Erich Weiss’s works are always about tales, stories or myths, which he impressively interweaves and arranges to a new entity. He has always been interested in the same subjects: such as “beauty”, the quest of the “femme fatale” or questions regarding vanitas and death.