Sepecial presentation at Art Cologne 2026

Exceptional art in a unique format

November 5 — 8, 2026

Art Cologne, Cologne, DE

The special presentations at ART COLOGNE aim to honour outstanding artistic figures through focused exhibitions. As museum-like interventions within the fair, they offer new perspectives and invite visitors to consider individual works within a broader art-historical and conceptual context.

Galerie Kandlhofer presents an exhibition dedicated to Hermann Nitsch, in collaboration with the Graz-based Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill and featuring loans from the Hermann Nitsch Foundation. Four large-scale works from the 1980s and 1990s illustrate the diversity of Nitsch’s painting.

In a work from 1982, red paint flows across the pale canvas. Traces, splashes and accumulations of colour make the painting process visible. A Schüttbild from 1997, by contrast, unfolds as a dark, expansive field of black, while green dominates a work from 1990.

In Kreuzwegstation (1994), a shirt is affixed to a jute surface. Its outstretched sleeves suggest a human figure, while dark traces of paint extend downwards beneath it. The garment connects the body with the act of painting while evoking the Christian Passion. Here, the existential dimension of Nitsch’s art becomes particularly evident, as does his ambition to make fundamental human experiences and emotions directly tangible through art.

Together, these works offer a nuanced perspective on an artist whose practice is often associated with the blood-red imagery of his actions. In Nitsch’s work, colour possesses an independent material presence: it flows, adheres and accumulates on the canvas. The surfaces preserve the tension between expressive gesture and material density.

Art Cologne
Messeplatz 1
50679 Cologne
Deutschland
www.artcologne.de