Rainer Fetting (*1949)
Yellow Wall (Luckauerstraße/Sebastianstraße), 1977
While still a master pupil at the College of Arts (HdK) in Berlin, Rainer Fetting co-founded the Galerie am Moritzplatz with Anne Jud, Helmut Middendorf, Berthold Schepers, Salomé and Bernd Zimmer. The artists’ “self-help project” came into being in 1977. Essentially, the movement of the Neue Wilde emerged from the Galerie run by the so-called “Moritzboys”.
This painting from 1977, “Yellow Wall (Luckauerstraße/Sebastianstraße)”, is part of a series of pictures of the Berlin Wall, the structure of which runs dominantly through the image. The apparently unrealistic yellow colour concentrates the viewer’s attention on the wall; at the same time, the warm coloration may suggest the wall’s protective function for the island state of West Berlin. At the time they were painted, Fetting’s wall paintings shocked the public due to their style and motifs. After the dominance of abstract painting and Concept Art, in the 1970s many artists were turning back to representational painting. At the same time, sweeping gestures and reduced abstract fields still reveal the influence of Abstract Expressionism.
Yellow Wall (Luckauerstraße/Sebastianstraße)
Water-based paints on canvas
140 x 160 cm
Acquired by the Cultural Offices of the Berlin Senate using funds from the Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin
© Rainer Fetting
© Reproduction: Kai-Annett Becker