Imaginative, atmospheric symphonies of color
Expressive, abstract landscapes of color at the “Farbwelten” exhibition in the Building and Technology Department at the University Hospital. By Jan Döhrer from Barchfeld, near Bad Salzungen, who has been painting intensively since 2006.
Opening night September 17: University Hospital Building and Technology Department exhibits paintings by Jan Döhrer
Author: Annett Spieß
A giant tsunami-like wave in fathomless blue, snow-covered hills battered by arctic winds, a magical streak of ultramarine, shining out from a blurred, whitish-gray mass of cloud, purple heather against a backdrop of green heights… the twenty-plus pictures in the new exhibition “Farbwelten” by Jan Döhrer at the University Hospital Building and Technology Department, which opens on the afternoon of September 17, 2018, cleverly play with the viewer’s imagination, sparking associations and emotions.
“Something very special” characterizes this exhibition, says the department head Steffen Kluge. “I came across Jan Döhrer’s one-man show on a visit to Bad Salzungen. His wide-ranging color compositions are striking and magical. The colors are in perpetual motion – atmospheric turbulence, heightened and suppressed intensity, waves and oscillations. That was why we wanted to bring these pictures to Dresden,” explains the man behind the move.
This is the first solo exhibition by the 48-year-old self-taught artist. Jan Döhrer’s preferred style and medium are abstract. He uses oil or acrylic, generally on large canvases – but also on wood and glass. Döhrer always loved to draw, but started focusing on painting in 2006. In 2012, he trained in graphic design.
Many of his paintings are notable for a seemingly endless, utterly fascinating and expressive depth and expanse – in imaginary landscapes with gentle waves, rugged mountains and infinite sky, captured with powerful, often blazing colors, harmonious gradients and confident brushwork. Jan Döhrer is inspired by nature, and also by impetus and emotions.
For example, one painting is romantic and dreamy, like a misty sunrise in shades of red, while another draws you in with its austere, sparse white interspersed with soft stone gray. And while some viewers may be reminded of their last vacation in chilly Iceland, for others it is the local environment that stands out. Two particularly special works in the exhibition have horizontal layers of color, expressionist in style, in places clearly divided, in others blurring into one another, elegantly suspending visual reality. This is poetry written with a paintbrush. Visitors to the opening will love the imaginative, atmospheric symphonies of color, subtle and virtuoso in composition, pleasing to the eye and yet anything but superficial. They will also enjoy the amazing solo improvisations by Scotty Böttcher on the vibraphone. Böttcher has been celebrated as one of eastern Germany’s stand-out musicians for decades, a man able to cross and blur the boundaries of genre.
You can visit the “Farbwelten” exhibition during the opening hours of the department. Official opening on September 17, 2018 (2 p.m.): University Hospital Building and Technology Department. Music at the opening: Scotty Böttcher, vibraphone.
This article appeared in the Dresdner Universitätsjournal (university newspaper, UJ) 13/2018 of September 04, 2018. The complete issue is available as a free PDF download here. Printed copies and PDF files of the university newspaper can be ordered from . More information can be found at universitaetsjournal.de.