Burkhard Held Explained

Burkhard Held is German painter living and working in Berlin, Germany.^[1] His art is based on figuration dissolving into abstraction.

Biography

Held was born in 1953. He studied at the Berlin University of the Arts as a "Meisterschüler" (Master Disciple) of Dietmar Lemcke from 1972 to 1979, and was granted a scholarship at Garrucha (Spain) by the "German National Academic Foundation" (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes). In 1993 he became professor at the Berlin University of the Arts.^[2] and later served as a professor at the China Academy of Art ("Chinesisch-deutsche Kunstakademie") in Hangzhou, PRC. Held is responsible for the organization of the cooperation of the Berlin University of the Arts and China.^[3]

Work

Burkhard Held is a figurative painter, who dissolves his motifs – landscapes, portraits, flowers – into color fields with a strong tendency towards autonomy. His strongly colored all-over images reinterpret things as abstract and then lead the back into figuration. In 2009 Held started to dedicate himself to the subject of flowers: blossoms become compositions with a landscape character, and are distributed in equally strong colors across the canvas. Thus they gain lyrical overtones and additional brightness.^[4] Hence Held has also begun to contrast figurative elements (such as the sky) - intentionally without painterly differentiation - with a hatching-like color field technique; this in traditional, monumental formats of his work.^[5]

Exhibitions (selection)

• 2011 – 2012 Kleine Welten – Große Kunst im kleinen Format, CAS, Salzburg, Austria
• 2009 Monuments in Time, Michael Schultz Gallery, Beijing, China
• 2009 River deep, Mountain high, Michael Schultz Gallery, Berlin
• 2008 Walk the Line, Cooperativa de Actividades Artísticas, Porto (Portugal)
• 2008 Close-Up, Por Amor À Arte Galeria, Porto (Portugal)
• 2007 100 Jahre Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunsthalle Mannheim^[6]
• 2007 Path of the sun, Keumsan Gallery, Heyri (Korea)^[7]
• 2007 Auf dem Weg ins Licht, Sammlung de Knecht, Kunsthalle Rostock^[8]
• 2006 Uzpuolimas!, Gallerija Vartai, Vilnius (Lithuania)^[9]
• 1998 Berliner Fenster, Galerie Brusberg, Berlin^[10]

^[11]

External links

• Burkhard Held at the Berlin University of the Arts
• Representation at Michael Schultz Gallery
• Representation at Gallery Kampl, Munich, Germany

Notes and References

1. Within artfacts.net-ranking he counts among the top two percent of the leading artists worldwide.
2. Cfr. Helfen und warnen (Helping and Warning), in: UniSPIEGEL, 29 November 2004.
3. Cfr. German Week 2012, in: Hanghzou Daily, 13 Oktober 2012.
4. Cfr. Bettina Krogemann: Blumen sind bei Burkhard Held reine Malerei (Burkhard Helds' flowers are pure painting), in: DIE WELT, 17 April 2010.
5. Cfr. the chapter Burkhard Held, in: Gerhard Charles Rump, Rekonstruktionen. Positionen zeitgenössischer Kunst, Berlin 2010.
6. Cfr. Gerhard Charles Rump, Burkhard Held in Mannheim, in: DIE WELT, 15.08.2007.
7. Cfr. catalogue Burkhard Held, Ed. Keumsan Gallery, Heyri 2007.
8. Cfr. Auf dem Weg ins Licht, Ed. Arie de Knecht / Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin 2007.
9. Cfr. catalogue Uzpuolimas!, Ed. Gallerija Vartai, Vilnius 2006.
10. Cfr. Cornelia Gerner, Berliner Fenster (Berlinian Window), in: Berliner Zeitung, 12.3.1998
11. http://www.schultzberlin.com/de/burkhard-held Full list