In 2002 the Bremen painter Manfred Bartling (1938–2020) and his wife, the poet Elisabeth Bartling (1940–2014), bought the house Heidestraße 54 calling it Haus Kunst Mitte. Here they created for themselves what most artists wish for, sufficient space for the presentation of their own works and those of colleagues.

In Haus Kunst Mitte the couple established the headquarters for their art foundation. For over 10 years they organized exhibitions for numerous contemporary artists. Painting and drawing had been Manfred Bartling‘s passion since childhood. It grew into a lifelong activity, which he had to defend against external resistance.

Originally trained as a photographer and commercial artist, he always saw himself as an autodidact. He would begin his process by testing a motif on small sheets of paper. This was then repeated on the next largest formats, and quite often finally led to the production of a painting. This serial strategy runs through his entire oeuvre. He pursued it more or less strictly with abstract forms, but also with still lifes of vegetables, mask-like faces, or the dogs Tycho and Tao, his steady companions.

The exhibition presents works on paper from five decades (1970-2020), during which the artist tried out very different styles and techniques. Rarely is it possible to reliably classify them in relation to the art historical canon. Bartling did not strive to conform. Merely the frequent involvement of chance played a role in the creation of his works: stain painting, color movements, an apparently spontaneous composition as well as the visualization of the creative process dominate his imagery. In addition, words or entire texts, certainly also inspired by his wife’s prose and poetry, were used to complement the pictorial with the linguistic.

On the occasion of the 85th birthday of Manfred Bartling, this first posthumous exhibition shows a small selection of his graphic work. It consists of more than 15,000 works created over a period of 70 years, which are now kept at Haus Kunst Mitte.

Curator: Dr. Anja Pawel