Uwe Pfeifer was born in Halle, Germany, in 1947. An artist of the Leipzig School, he studied under Wolfgang Mattheuer and Werner Tübke. His figural realism combines elements of old German painting, Romanticism, Naturalism and Surrealism. His vision points beyond the everyday experience of seeing, and achieves additional sensual and conceptual meaning with a balance of harmony and contradictions. The calm composition of colours and shapes creates a unity from the variegated and contradictory relationship of human nature and the external world, yet tension is ready to burst from underneath the poised surface. The silence in his pictures has an almost dramatic quality. The clear, level-headed and precise representation lures the viewer into a kind of false tranquillity. His central subject is the isolation of man, the fragility of emotional equilibrium in a world that can be both threatening and protective. As he uncovers the contradictions, he evokes weighty existential dilemmas with a lyrical sensibility.
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New Acquisitions – Rarely Seen Works 13. March, 2009 – 14. June
The Ludwig Museum possesses a relatively small yet internationally significant collection of over 400 contemporary artworks. As the museum’s permanent exhibition is only able to show a small portion of the collection, we make an effort to present a fresh selection from time to time.