Albrecht Behmel

Albrecht Behmel

2015

German painter, historian and writer, b. 1971.

“I assemble colorful silhouettes into complex worlds of myth and magic. All kinds of stories take place here, some sad, some funny. You will find superheroes like Batman and The Hulk filled with the outlines of their mortal enemies, others, like Tony Stark are quite literally “full of themselves”. I create eternally hungry sharks circling each other, stampeding horses, cities and dreamlike landscapes made of leaves, blossoms, vegetables and fruits.
I call this style “The Magic of the Swarms” or
“Abstrahism”, a term I invented to express this mix of abstract forms stemming from real-world shapes, just like a shadow abstractly represents a 3D body on a 2D surface. Something is lost, something is won.
Abstrahism is about the connectedness of all beings however different they may seem - like in a kaleidoscope where known forms melt into something new every time they move. Once I established a net of shapes and outlines on canvas, I add powerful acrylic colors (they poison me less than oil) following an algorithm in my mind: As in a musical fugue I create an interweaving pattern of main themes, parts and variations within a grid of shapes and silhouettes.”


Exhibitions

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