Ausstellung Gerhard Marcks

Exhibition by Cornelius Völker

The painter Cornelius Völker (b. 1965), who studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts under Professors A.R. Penck and Dieter Krieg, has been teaching painting as a professor at the Münster Academy of Fine Arts since 2005. The fall exhibition at the Neue Galerie in Haus Beda features paintings of flowers, blossoms, and plants by Cornelius Völker. “Weeds” are also included, and the artist reveals their “beautiful” sides.

Cornelius Völker has been exploring botanical motifs since 2013. More recent are the large-format bouquets of flowers, which are covered in cellophane for preservation. While the foil-wrapped floral forms initially draw the eye, attention soon shifts to the lower third of the image, where the multicolored bouquets dissolve into abstract color gradients. The transparent film, with edges that shimmer whitish in the light, divides the floral arrangements into segments. Other floral still lifes by the artist depict floating, iridescent blossoms of various colors against an unfathomably dark, reflective background. Völker combines autumnal floral arrangements in ochre-yellow hues with iridescent, turquoise-blue, and violet leaf formations and splashes of color. Flower stems in glass vases filled with yellowish, cloudy water allude to the fleeting splendor of bouquets without actually depicting them. The deeply drooping blossoms in the Delft porcelain vases, reflected in a glossy background, are a masterfully staged depiction of transience. Cornelius Völker depicts the gradual withering of the botanical motifs with the same unflinching directness with which he previously presented the condition of male bodies in an unvarnished light.

The conceptually oriented artist Cornelius Völker proves himself to be a profound connoisseur of art history in his botanical subjects, just as he does with all his other motifs. Time and again, the artist takes up traditional pictorial subjects and explores them visually in his partly representational, partly abstract painting: According to Reinhard Spieler, references to art history can be found in nearly every work by Cornelius Völker. His paintings always “require” viewing both up close and from a distance: “Up close, you see the individual components of the painting—the drops and individual brushstrokes, the various layers…” (Gail B. Kierckpatrick). From a greater distance, the individual pictorial elements are more clearly discernible.

All of the artist’s subjects—handbags, chocolate bars, ribbed underwear, updos, swimmers, medications, clouds, stacks of books, guinea pigs, small dogs …—captivate with a style that is at times impasto and at other times glazed, always offering an intellectual experience: a “bath” in color formations and a visual exercise.

Opening hours:
Tuesdays–Fridays 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Closed on Mondays

Haus Beda and the Neue Galerie will be closed from December 19, 2026, through January 3, 2027.