Artist Statement

"We are painters. We paint what we see. We paint what is good!" – With these sentences we introduce our manifesto "Good Painting". In contrast to the concept of bad painting, the initially seemingly bold slogan dissolves into a humorous play with clichés and ironic comparisons in the rest of the manifesto, just as we do with painting. Our pictures are an interweaving of formal elements, art-historical quotations and a lot of irony. We draw on what surrounds us in our own lives and everyday life, pop culture, the internet or even art and cultural history. Our painting can be described as figurative, associative, subjective and also abstract. The central theme in our works is the examination of the German middle class milieu, the associated clichés and insignia of German national culture. (Read the manifesto here!)

German Angst meets Toast Hawaii: The appearance of black pudding and other curiosities
by Sophia Schiller, M.A. Kunsthistorikerin

"We are painters. We paint what we see. We paint what is good!" - with these bold sentences, the artist duo Albrecht/Wilke introduce their manifesto entitled ‘Good Painting’.In contrast to the concept of bad painting, the initially seemingly bold slogan dissolves into a humorous game of clichés and ironic comparisons as the text progresses.In the end, confusion remains: how can one recognise it - so-called good painting?

A look at Albrecht/Wilke's works reveals an eclectic interweaving of formal elements and art-historical variations with contemporary pictorial themes that are fuelled by the world view of a metropolitan Generation Y. Born in the early 1990s, the two artists belong to that post-reunification generation that supposedly lacks nothing and whose biggest problem seems to be choosing the right frozen pizza at half past ten in the morning.

‘We paint what we see’ is their battle cry, and so the surreal visual worlds that unfold on canvas and paper appear to be a humorous take on the reality of their own lives.

For this generation of people who grew up around the turn of the millennium, there are no longer any boundaries - neither geographical nor aesthetic.And so, visually trained by the Internet, pop culture and, not least, their studies at the renowned art academies in Braunschweig and Hamburg, the compagnons draw on the canon of art and cultural history of the past century with a clear conscience, mix it with a hefty dose of zeitgeist and celebrate - true to the motto ‘Painting is dead - long live painting!- the liberation of the art form from its aesthetic corset.

Figurative, associative, subjective - this is how the style of the artist duo, who work together in harmony, can be characterised. In this respect, there are parallels to the painting style of the Neue Wilde, a style that established itself in the early 1980s and is ironically referred to in English-speaking countries as Bad Painting. The central pictorial subject of Albrecht/Wilke's works is the examination of the German middle class milieu, the associated clichés and insignia of German national culture.Garden gnomes tumble over the miniature golf course or hide behind the garden fence. Mettbrötchen, Toast Hawaii and other stylistic flourishes of German cuisine float across the picture surface. Flowers and cigarettes embroidered in classic cross-stitch grow on the canvas.

The grid already established in Constructivism repeatedly structures the background of these scenes in an abstract form, as do ornamental patterns which, on closer inspection, are generated from objects of modern consumer society such as scented trees. Ornamentation, declared an aesthetic crime by Adolf Loos at the beginning of the 20th century, is rehabilitated here as the white noise of contemporary culture.

However, scenes of everyday life are also immortalised, in which a certain gloominess resonates and which characterise a proximity to current political and social events in the country. The mood oscillates between naivety and trepidation, which is ironically emphasised by the carefully chosen titles of the pictures. ‘Total happiness’ in front of an Alpine panorama is juxtaposed with ‘Shadow over the miniature golf course’ and for a moment you think you are in a specifically German nightmare that is best laughed away.

Albrecht/Wilke set themselves no limits in terms of media and do not shy away from combining classic oil painting with techniques such as airbrushing or embroidery on canvas. Watercolour painting, which is popular with amateur artists, is also experiencing a revival in the duo's latest work. Instead of delicate landscape scenes, however, the painters, as expected, prefer to capture motifs such as dachshunds, antlers and various favourite dishes in this medium.An oversized tribal wall tattoo, a reference to the currently fashionable style of the nineties, forms the background for the hanging of works.

German philistinism thus appears in the dazzling guise of pop and leaves the viewer amused and yet shocked by the humorous accuracy of the artistic punch line. Good painting, it becomes clear, may be many things, but in the case of Albrecht/Wilke it is above all a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions