David Gunderlach: Monkey Mind

Paintings from four decades

Gunderlach follows in the tradition of Pop Art artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and the Neo-Expressionist Jean-Michel Basquiat. He became acquainted with the works of his role models in New York in the mid-1980s, as well as those of graffiti artists and street artists.

Under the title Monkey Mind, Haus Kunst Mitte is presenting an exhibition of works by painter David Gunderlach for the first time. On display are 50 paintings created over the last four decades. The exhibition title Monkey Mind refers to a Buddhist concept that describes the volatility and restlessness of the human brain and the lack of control over the flow of thoughts.

Gunderlach's works are characterized by this restlessness. Many brushstrokes pointing in all directions, sketchy depictions of everyday objects and graffiti-like words and letters testify to a fast way of working. His works are not only a symbol of the fast pace of our thoughts, but also of the fast pace of our modern lives. They stand for the realities of life at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, which are characterized by permanent acceleration, the compulsion to increase, innovation intensification and constant accessibility. Gunderlach's open compositions and the many references to city life embody the absurdity of the simultaneity of our everyday lives.

Gunderlach tracks down the themes of his time and creates pictorial works that are satirical, thought-provoking, provocative, playful, aggressive and moving. In the 1980s, it was the Cold War, rearmament, the HIV epidemic, drugs, violence and the relationship between the sexes. He then created images that dealt with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the coronavirus pandemic. Today, he finds concise visual forms with which he poses questions about the distribution of power in the world and the state of the world. His paintings impressively capture and reflect the respective time and era in which they were created and he uses them to create spaces for reflection on social developments.

Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday from 12 to 18 o'clock

Runtime: Sat, 21/09/2024 to Fri, 20/12/2024

Takes place here:

• Haus Kunst Mitte