Markus Fräger in memoriam

Vernissage on Friday, December 1 from 6 to 9 p.m. with introductory words by Martina Handwerker at 7 p.m.

Retrospective: Selected works by the Cologne painter Markus Fräger (1959-2020)

The painter Markus Fräger died in Cologne on 17 August 2020 following a serious and protracted illness. His paintings were dense chamber plays and characterized by his love for his family and friends, music and cinema.

Following a major retrospective at Schloß Museum Cappenberg from April to September 2023, "in memoriam Markus Fräger" is now the first gallery exhibition since the artist's death. On display are paintings on canvas and paper from the late 1990s to 2019.

Markus Fräger was born in Hamm, Westphalia, in 1959 and studied at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig, as well as art history and archaeology at the University of Münster. Most recently, he had his studio in a former vinegar factory in Cologne. His paintings have been exhibited at the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg, the Kunsthalle Koblenz and most recently at the Kunstverein Unna in 2019.

Fräger mainly painted figuratively, his dense scenes with strong contrasts of light and dark often take place in interiors and are reminiscent of both the tradition of genre painting and film stills. It is tempting to assume that there is a story behind the composition of the figures, but this is never fully revealed. Fräger's inspirations included baroque interiors as well as films by the Coen brothers or the charged, somnambulistic images of David Lynch. To prepare his pictures, he had actors and actresses develop improvised scenes and combined them with found photographs and film stills.

The anachronistic presentation of the quotes used, which deliberately incorporates different time periods into the plot, emphasizes the theme of memory as central to his pictures. This creates intimate moments of unconditional beauty and tender vulnerability. The emerging memory, the moment captured in its transience.