From March 25 to June 19, 2016, Villa Schöningen is showing more than 30 works by the Berlin painter, draftsman and graphic artist Johannes Grützke (* 1937). You can see oil paintings and pastels that are dedicated to nudes.

Johannes Grützke, co-founder of the 1973 School of New Magnificence, which stylistically pursues an ironically broken realism with socio-critical relevance, presents physical states of sometimes disturbing realism.

“Grützke's pictures are unique, admittedly extravagant contributions to the social and moral history of the Federal Republic. They comment in a bizarre way on social role-plays, attempts at emancipation and infantile regressions, single culture and compulsive group behavior, the gender struggle, women's power, sexual liberation and sexual tension, ideological contortions and collective neuroses. Grützke is a sensualist and theatrical writer. His idiom is body language. He depicts the psychic mechanics and the confused instinctual life in a theater of the flesh ... ”writes Eduard Beaucamp about the“ painter and contemporary universal actor ”.

Johannes Grützke's nude retrospective at Villa Schöningen presents the lush, extravagant imagery of the artist, who is still largely undisturbed by the intellectual art business and is one of the most important German painters in post-war history.

In addition to the works of art, the film is approved. shown in the universe of johannes grützke by Bernt Engelmann and Gisela Wunderlich, who gives insights into the life of the artist as a sculptor, adventure violinist, actor, stage designer and book author.