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DYSTOPIA - Wolfgang Petrick & Friends
Museum for a summer
Wolfgang Petrick in seinem Atelier
© Matthias Reichelt
As part of its 'Museum for a Summer' exhibition series, Ars Sacrow e.V. is showing a tribute to the painter, installation and multimedia artist Wolfgang Petrick (1939-2025) from July 5 to September 13.
Petrick's extensive life's work is characterized by war experiences, ruined landscapes and his youth in walled-in West Berlin. As a schoolboy, he witnessed the Allied bombing of the Genshagen aircraft engine factory in Ludwigsfelde, observed the murderous hunt for concentration camp prisoners on his doorstep and took his first pictures of the Korean War. The subject of war has never left him and lends his work a political topicality today. We also encounter Petrick's culturally pessimistic and dystopian view in the erotically charged cyborg hybrid creatures in his paintings, his 'decay sculptures' and human-animal-machine installations, which prophesize an out-of-control, transhuman future.
As an art student, Wolfgang Petrick was drawn to the works of Otto Dix, Georg Grosz and Max Beckmann, but also to the Art Brut of Jean Dubuffet or the expressive painting of James Ensor. He was a co-founder of the first Berlin producer gallery Großgörschen 35he became a spokesman for the Critical Realists and took part in Documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977. Petrick was a member of the Akademie der Künste and taught master classes at the Berlin University of the Arts (now UdK) for three decades.
The vulnerability and fragility of man and nature in a destructive 'civilization' is a recurring theme in Wolfgang Petrick's work right through to his late work, which is presented in detail at Schloss Sacrow. This homage to an internationally renowned protagonist of New Figuration is complemented by artistic positions of his wife Helma (1940-2025) and former students of different generations.
With works by Tatjana Bergius, Boris Eldagsen, Ewa Finn, Samira Freitag, HELMA,
Berit Myrebøe, Dennis Rudolph, Heike Ruschmeyer,
Jan Sobottka, Iva Vacheva, René Wirths
Curator: Michael M. Thoss
With the kind support of the SPSG Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg and the State of BrandenburgTranslated with DeepL
Petrick's extensive life's work is characterized by war experiences, ruined landscapes and his youth in walled-in West Berlin. As a schoolboy, he witnessed the Allied bombing of the Genshagen aircraft engine factory in Ludwigsfelde, observed the murderous hunt for concentration camp prisoners on his doorstep and took his first pictures of the Korean War. The subject of war has never left him and lends his work a political topicality today. We also encounter Petrick's culturally pessimistic and dystopian view in the erotically charged cyborg hybrid creatures in his paintings, his 'decay sculptures' and human-animal-machine installations, which prophesize an out-of-control, transhuman future.
As an art student, Wolfgang Petrick was drawn to the works of Otto Dix, Georg Grosz and Max Beckmann, but also to the Art Brut of Jean Dubuffet or the expressive painting of James Ensor. He was a co-founder of the first Berlin producer gallery Großgörschen 35he became a spokesman for the Critical Realists and took part in Documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977. Petrick was a member of the Akademie der Künste and taught master classes at the Berlin University of the Arts (now UdK) for three decades.
The vulnerability and fragility of man and nature in a destructive 'civilization' is a recurring theme in Wolfgang Petrick's work right through to his late work, which is presented in detail at Schloss Sacrow. This homage to an internationally renowned protagonist of New Figuration is complemented by artistic positions of his wife Helma (1940-2025) and former students of different generations.
With works by Tatjana Bergius, Boris Eldagsen, Ewa Finn, Samira Freitag, HELMA,
Berit Myrebøe, Dennis Rudolph, Heike Ruschmeyer,
Jan Sobottka, Iva Vacheva, René Wirths
Curator: Michael M. Thoss
With the kind support of the SPSG Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg and the State of BrandenburgTranslated with DeepL
Runtime: Sun, 05/07/2026 to Sun, 13/09/2026
Price: €10.00
Reduced price: €6.00
Reduced price: €6.00
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