In the organizer's words:

Markus Fräger

Vernissage: Fri. 23. Jan. 18 - 21h with an opening speech at 19h by Mrs.

Annette Wewers, Dipl.-Des.

Immediacy of existence

Selected works by the Cologne painter Markus Fräger (1959-2020)
The painter Markus Fräger died in Cologne on August 17, 2020 as a result of a serious and protracted illness. His paintings were dense chamber plays and characterized by his love for his family and friends, music and cinema.

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, dreamlike 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 levels 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.

Exhibition. 23.1. - 7.3.2026