The “Big Four” of Socialist Realism probably wouldn’t have found this exhibition all that amusing, but official East Germany was rather humorless anyway. Nevertheless, it’s a magnificent success—profound, rich in content, exuberant, and entertaining. This is thanks to its curator, Freddy Langer; the artist Moritz Götze; a dynamic couple of collector friends; several gallery owners; and, of course, some of the comrades mentioned above—especially Werner Tübke, a true giant of 20th-century painting. 

The Austrian painter Franziska Maderthaner exhibited with us for the first time in the spring of 2025—“Young Man with a Tulip” was on view at our gallery in Erfurt. This year, she was elected the new vice president of the Künstlerhaus in Vienna. On October 2 at 6:30 p.m., she will open an exhibition at our Frankfurt gallery featuring her masterful paintings, which interweave figurative and abstract elements.

April 26 to July 5, 2026
Kunstforum Ingelheim – Old Town Hall

A double exhibition at the Kunstforum Ingelheim unites works by Hiroyuki Masuyama (born 1968 in Tsukuba, Japan, lives in Düsseldorf) and etchings and lithographs by the great American printmaker James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903).

James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) revolutionized printmaking in the second half of the 19th century with his etchings and lithographs.

The exhibition focuses on Whistler's etchings and lithographs depicting views of London and Venice. Portraits of people from his personal circle, presented as a third theme, reveal the sensitive side of this artist, who was considered eccentric. The diverse range of subjects on display demonstrates the mastery of his unusual techniques.

Whistler's life was marked by numerous travels, which constantly provided him with new subjects to photograph, capturing them in graphic works created on location. After moving from the East Coast of the USA to Paris at the age of 21, he settled in London in 1859. Through his art, he explored the city on the Thames, creating numerous prints until the late 1890s that depicted then-unusual views of the river, its banks and bridges, ships and harbor scenes, as well as people in their everyday lives.

A keen traveler until a year before his death in 1903, Whistler frequently spent extended periods in various European cities and was consequently a well-connected artist. For example, he lived and worked in Venice for over a year in 1879/80. There, he created etchings of the waterfronts of magnificent palaces and typical Venetian bridges, but above all, he focused on motifs of passageways, courtyards, and workshops beyond the usual tourist attractions.

Simultaneously, objects and photographic works by the Japanese artist Hiroyuki Masuyama are on display. His works are often journeys through time, in which the present and the past are superimposed and interwoven.

Masuyama draws a connection to the present. The Japanese artist traveled in Whistler's footsteps to London and Venice.

There, he found the locations where Whistler created his etchings and photographed the current situations: contemporary buildings, vehicles, ships, and people dressed in modern clothing. In these newly created works, Masuyama's contemporary view of these locations is superimposed on Whistler's historical prints. They reveal how significantly, for example, the banks of the Thames have changed in the past 150 years, and how minor the transformation of the Italian lagoon city appears in comparison. As in his earlier works, Masuyama here again visualizes his central theme, which has permeated his artistic output since 1997: the connection between space, time, and change.

To gain a deeper understanding of Masuyama's artistic practice, a group of earlier works in the basement forms the fourth part of the exhibition: these include highly impressive, sometimes walk-in installations, large-format light boxes, and delicate works on paper. They are united by the idea that every space—whether as small as a patch of lawn or as large as the universe—changes continuously over time, albeit with varying intensity.

The works of both artists are an invitation to a "journey" in which past and present repeatedly touch, blend, complement, and merge into significant historical documents.

Like other Impressionist artists, Whistler also collected Japanese woodblock prints. His intensive engagement with them is evident in the composition of his own works. Selected examples by renowned Japanese woodblock print artists such as Utagawa Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, and Kitagawa Utamaro therefore flank some of his prints.

To provide an art historical context, Whistler's works are juxtaposed with selected prints by some of his British, French, and American contemporaries: The works by Seymour Haden, Frank Short, Édouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Marcellin Desboutin, and Joseph Pennell illustrate the reciprocal stylistic influences.

(using a text from the Kunstforum Ingelheim)

We cordially invite you to the opening of the exhibition "Along the Path" at Galerie Rothamel in Frankfurt am Main on May 21 at 5:30 p.m. These works will also be on display at Galerie Rothamel in Erfurt until May 16.

On Wednesday, April 22 at 6 p.m., the third installment of "Picture Cosmos" opens at the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig.

With a diverse selection of paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and photographs, the exhibition showcases the variety of art from Leipzig and places it in dialogue with national and international perspectives. The tour begins with outstanding works by Max Beckmann (1884–1950), encompasses modern art, focuses on art from the GDR, and extends to the present day. (Announcement text MdbK)

Hans-Christian Schink is represented here with a work from my series "German Unity Transport Projects."
... mdbk.de

The artist would particularly like to draw your attention to the new podcast by book designer Hannah Feldmeier. "The Voice of the Book" is a series of conversations she recently launched with artists whose visual worlds she has transformed into truly wonderful books through intensive collaboration. In the current episode, Schink and Feldmeier discuss the creation of "On the Way." Also available on Spotify (open.spotify.com) and Apple Podcasts.

graphik-sammlung.de

On a related note: Volume 25 of "European Eyes on Japan" has just been published. For this extraordinary photography project, more than 70 European photographers have been invited since its inception in 1999 to work on a self-chosen theme in one of Japan's 47 prefectures. Schink participated in 2009. In 2025, Sanna Krook (Finland) and Dominika Jackuliaková (Slovakia) visited Fukui Prefecture.

An overview of previous publications can be found here: eu-japanfest.org

Current exhibitions with Hans-Christian Schink:

Roma nel Mondo – MAXXI Rome, extended until April 26

MOMAT Collection – The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, until May 10

Strange? Remarkably Worthy! – Museum Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus, until May 31

Nature and Antiquity: The Romantic Friedrich Nerly in Rome, Kunsthalle Bremen, until July 5

I couldn't say how many times I've walked this path in the last ten years. It stretches for over three kilometers from our house through the agricultural landscape typical of eastern Mecklenburg to the end of the village lake. Most of the time, it was simply the walk to the lake, taken alone, with a partner, or with friends. For relaxation, for reflection, for a bit of exercise. Or to observe the vastly different moods of light throughout the seasons: an almost seamless white of sky and snow-covered earth in the winter fog, dramatic cloud formations before a thunderstorm, or an almost unreal twilight blue.



I noticed the flora and fauna along the path without looking closely or studying them in any detail. Eventually, I did ask myself what I was actually seeing. Why did I recognize many of the animal species I encountered here, but only a small fraction of the plants growing along the path? This gradually gave rise to the idea of ​​creating a photographic inventory of this familiar area over an extended period. Alongside this, I began identifying the existing animal and plant life using traditional field guides, apps, and internet research.



The shift from casual observation to focused observation constantly revealed new potential aspects of my project. Each hike brought further discoveries, and along with the astonishment at the unexpectedly high number of species came the realization that much would remain hidden from me. An encyclopedic approach to my project was illusory. Everything I could depict and name would point to the inevitable incompleteness of such an undertaking. Even though I extended this work from the originally planned one year to four, it can therefore only offer a glimpse into the inexhaustible whole.



Thirty-three black-and-white photographs of the path now form the basis of this work. They convey an impression of the character and topography of this Ice Age-shaped landscape, as well as the nature of its economic use. These are complemented by five color photographs that reflect the changing light and weather throughout the seasons. Studying the flora along the path resulted in 128 photographs of blossoms, 29 photographs of plants, and 25 images of leaves from the trees and shrubs in this area. Representing the wildlife, my brother, Martin Schink, created colored drawings of all 82 bird species observed. My book, *Am Weg* (On the Path), published in 2025 by Hartmann Books, contains not only this extensive visual material but also lists of the recorded animal and plant species and a literary text by the poet and writer Uwe Kolbe.