Norbert schwontkowski biography of abraham

For Bremen-born painter Norbert Schwontkowski, cold was a driving force.

Norbert schwontkowski biography of abraham

As he observed in one of his undated notebooks, the point of departure for his art was ‘sensing the duality of the warmth of one’s own body and the coldness of outer space’. ‘This duality makes itself felt as pain,’ he added, ‘and the artist works on that.’ As if to shelter his viewers and himself from the cosmic chill, he made paintings with a peculiar, laconic humour in a range of warm, organic, earthy tones.

Schwontkowski’s current retrospective at Kunsthalle Bremen, ‘Some of my Secrets’, which was previously shown at Kunst Museum Bonn and will tour to Gemeentemuseum Den Haag later this year, underscores his unusually free approach to painting.

He used a mixture of linseed oil, chalk, emulsion paint, iron chloride, water and old tea to create the delicate shades for his backgrounds. He poured paint onto canvases laid out on the floor before working t