Lot 1 D

Bright colours, homoerotic themes and a nod to social realism - these are some of the key ingredients of Norbert Bisky's practice. He is most famous for exuberant choices of colours, for containing movement and for his light, almost pastel colour palette. Born in 1970 in Leipzig Bisky never really fit into the systems that characterized the former German Democratic Republic. As soon as he could he went to study in Berlin, and the big city provided a more ample playground for the young painter. Since those early years when he studied under Georg Baselitz, Bisky has co-organized operas in the famous Berghain club and spent a lot of time abroad. He has honed his unique painterly style and went on to become one of Germany's most famous contemporary painters. Painting figuratively whilst everyone shouts that figuration is dead (or painting, for that matter) has been a necessity for him. The blond cherub-like young males are a recurring theme in his canvases. In the current painting we see three figures kneel, cowered down to the floor, whilst another boy leaps over them. Whilst the viewer can never be certain if heroicism is portrayed, or if he is looking at a critique of covert propaganda, there is a strong sense that geometric forms are purposely broken up and fractured.