Rooted In Time Rooted In The Sky

Buchmann Galerie is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Bernd Koberling on the occasion of Gallery Weekend Berlin 2026. Painter Bernd Koberling (b. 1938 in Berlin) is among the most important and influential artists of German postwar art.

Koberling positioned himself early on with a figurative, expressive painting against the dominance of abstract art in the post-war period, thereby opening the path for the following generation of “Neue Wilde” painters in the 1980s. Around 1990, however, he moved away from the figurative furor of Neo-Expressionism and devoted himself to an intense exploration of painting as a vehicle for expression between material, color, and form. From early on, the experience of landscape became an important point of reference for his consistently playful striving to renew the possibilities of painting.

Through regular, sometimes months-long stays in Iceland, his recent works have been deeply shaped by the perception of landscape. Since 1977 he has spent time on the island every year, and its nature has had a decisive influence on his painting. This is also reflected in the chromaticity of his works, as painting that opens itself to its own means in order to produce works of great visual intensity. The exhibition presents, alongside large-scale canvases from the years 1992 to 2026, an extensive series of watercolors characterized by intense coloration, broad gestural actions, and consistent abstraction. “The more intimate the painting, the rougher the means,” says Koberling. The watercolors form large groups of works and reveal the mystical-romantic side of the artist.