De Brock

De Brock is pleased to present its third solo exhibition with Helmut Dorner. Featuring a new suite of acrylic paintings on canvas or wood panel, this exhibition is the latest demonstration of Dorner’s prominence as an abstract painter, a movement of which he has been a significant proponent since the mid-1980s. Having originally studied under Gerhard Richter at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf between 1976 and 1982, Dorner quickly established himself as a eminent voice in post-modern European abstraction, solidified with the artists inclusion in the ninth edition of the prestigious documenta quinquennial (Germany, 1992) curated by Jan Hoet. While his early paintings were marked by dark tones; a tendency towards geometricism; and a sculptural surface built-up by thickly applied impasto oil on hand-cut wooden supports, these recent acrylic works are rendered in a softer palette of pastel shades and almost approach representation in their resolute abstraction.

Since 1989 Dorner has been Professor of Painting at Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Karlsruhe, Germany). Important institutional solo exhibitions include Kunstmuseum Winterthur (Switzerland, 2006), Josef Albers Museum (Germany, 2006), Saarland Museum (Germany, 2006), Carré d'Art, Musée d'art contemporain de Nîmes (France, 1991) and Kunsthalle Bern (Switzerland, 1990). Dorner's work resides in the public collections of Centre Pompidou (Paris), Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Ghent), Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo (Mexico City), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid) and more.