Following the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hans Platschek (1923–2000), we take a fresh look at the work of this restless cosmopolitan. Having grown up in Berlin and Montevideo (Uruguay), Platschek returned to Europe from South American exile in 1953. Between Munich, Rome, London and Hamburg he developed an extensive oeuvre as a versatile painter, clear-sighted essayist and polemic art critic.
Honoured in 1958/59 at the 2nd documenta and biennials in Venice and São Paulo as an important representative of informalist painting, during the 1960s Platschek made a striking stylistic change to the figural – subsequently presenting himself as a meticulous realist with a satirical bent, or as a deft neo-expressionist. In parallel with his painting, Platschek intervened in current artistic debates with sharp-tongued texts and radio reports that took a critical view of market mechanisms and fashionable trends.
The exhibition is a cooperation with the Kunsthalle Schweinfurt, the Museum Lothar Fischer, Neumarkt, the van de Loo Foundation, Munich, and the Hans Platschek Stiftung, Hamburg.
