Wolfgang Betke

Wolfgang Betke's most important painting tools are not just brushes and paint, but a wide range of grinding tools.

He removes layers, clears tracks and creates space with them. The result is a painting, which - like in a musical improvisation process - repeatedly searches for its own zero point. What motivates Betke is a reflected, contemporary usage of the painted picture. Sanding and chafing can be understood on the one hand as a statement in the context of painting tradition, on the other hand as accepting the challenge of other image productions. Through the deliberate violation of the pictorial surface, Wolfgang Betke creates an impact of the material and the depicted, an opening of the painterly space,
as well as a visualization of the artistic process.