Jochen Hein: Die Natur des Menschen

The paintings by Jochen Hein (*1960 in Husum) do not reflect reality. Even though the viewer sees realistically painted nature, park landscapes, buildings, and people, at the same time they open up a new world. Sections of the paintings show, for instance, details of a face, of surfaces of grass or water reduced to breaking surf, or blurred horizons between ocean and sky. Yet the depiction's fixation on detail allows room for the imagination. Emotions arise-wishes, dreams, fears. Closely related to German Romanticism, the densely atmospheric paintings seem like the condensation of a moment. Some are hardly larger than a notebook, while others fill entire museum walls. Regardless of their format, they show the power, vastness, and mystery of a nature that humankind will never be able to subdue completely. Exhibition schedule: Mittelrhein Museum, Koblenz, July 5-October 6, 2013 | Stadtgalerie Klagenfurt, October 17, 2013-January 26, 2014 | Kunsthalle Jesuitenkirche, Aschaffenburg, February 15-May 4, 2014