Dirk Skreber
Untitled, 2020

Artist
Dirk Skreber

Title
Untitled

Year of creation
2020

Technique and dimensions
Aluminum lacquer and sealing tape on canvas, 155 x 230 cm

Year of acquisition
2020

Acquisition from the Friends of the National Gallery / Donation from a member on the occasion of his 40th anniversary of membership.

In 2000, Dirk Skreber received the National Gallery's prize for young art, which was awarded for the first time. For his presentation in the Historical Hall in Hamburger Bahnhof, the painter built a series of three square rooms that could be entered through locks and in each of which one of his pictures hung. In addition to an abstract painting, Skreber showed a landscape with three houses and a work with two locomotives that appear to be racing towards each other on a rail junction in the forest. The depictions of railways are a leitmotif running through Skreber's work. The artist began the series in 1986 when he was still studying at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.

The work donated to the Nationalgalerie dates from 2020. It shows an abandoned work locomotive in an empty landscape. The acrid green background and rising streaks of color give the motif an eerie effect: Is the train in a post-apocalyptic environment? Is it at the bottom of a sea? As is so often the case, Dirk Skreber ignores any possible interpretation: it can be like this, but it can also be completely different.

- Sven Beckstette