Exhibition in the Lichtenberg Studios July/August 2020
“Shop window” on the ground floor, Türrschmidtstr. 24
Exhibition period: 8 July to 30 August 2020
Opening hours: Tue – Fri 11 – 18
In recent years Klaus Hartmann has created a group of paintings that deals with postcard motifs. This was the reason for the invitation of the Lichtenberg Studios with the inquiry whether he would be willing to paint ten paintings about the district.
As a child Klaus Hartmann collected postcards. He grew up in the GDR. His parents had numerous contacts in socialist and western countries through family, friends and his father’s profession (he was a pastor). So they received postcards from all over the world. His special pride was a multi-part card from Montreal airport in the form of a four-leaf clover with bright red edges and a polar bear card from Kamchatka.
Despite the obviousness of the motifs, stories that tell about Lichtenberg are hidden behind each motif. For example, in the picture with the flamingos, a strange light stands out. It was taken after a snapshot, in the winter quarters of the birds in the zoo Friedrichsfelde, flooded with artificial light. The picture stands for Hartmann in correspondence to the wonderful paper wallpapers painted with exotic birds in the Friedrichsfelde castle. The detached small building of a flower shop in Neu-Hohenschönhausen on a gloomy winter’s day in front of a prefabricated concrete slab building tells about the cohabitation of the inhabitants in a new development area, its shopping facilities and about how to make life a little more beautiful. It is not possible to depict the numerous facets of Lichtenberg with ten paintings, but the painterly examination of the medium of the picture postcard gave Klaus Hartmann the opportunity to capture a piece of everyday life in Lichtenberg.
