For the first time, the Hegenbarth Sammlung Berlin will devote a solo exhibition to one single artist who dedicates his entire work to the drawing on paper, Wolfram Erber.

In Spring 2015, the Collection started its exhibition programme with a monographic show “Josef Hegenbarth’s Palette” on its eponymous artist. The following theme show “Tiere schauen/ Looking at Animals Looking at Us” comprised more than 100 exhibits by 36 international artists. Based on works by Josef Hegenbarth and by ten of his friends and colleagues of the time, paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures by 26 contemporary artists were combined.

Wolfram Erber’s rigorous compositions follow a meticulously elaborate concept he has developed over many years and refined to perfection. The artist created several series on the geometric shape of the heptagon. Its outlines become visible only through close observation. Sometimes just individual lines and detached areas appear before the eye. Only through their outlines can they be traced as heptagons. These drawings form seven groups of seven sheets each. The variations Erber generated from this principle, are as manifold in their shapes as different in their expressions. There are also drawings in pencil on this theme which — by all compositional accuracy — appear fresh, vivid and animated. The matt, muted works in pastel and pigment crayon fascinate through their soft tactile surfaces, like powder or velvet. The drawings are executed with absolute precision and accuracy. Erber arranges groups of drawings accordingly to a particular scheme which evokes musical scores. They grow into visual melodies and rhythmics, even into a choreography with an expressive, lively appeal to the viewer.

Wolfram Erber was born in Berlin in 1939 where he has been living again after his childhood and school days. Apart from his drawings, he also created sound and light installations, musical and scenic works as well as graphic scores performed in Berlin, Japan and in the USA. Scholarships and longer trips took him to New York and San Francisco. His first one-man exhibition took place in Munich in 1965. Numerous solo and group shows followed in Berlin, Leverkusen, Cologne, Innsbruck, Graz, Milan, Zurich, Dublin, and New York.

*)  © Wolfram Erber, Courtesy Galerie Fred Jahn
We thank Fred Jahn for the kind support.