Gérard Walther

Gérard Walther has been painting people for 60 years – torn, vibrant, sometimes clearly outlined, sometimes merely a vague notion. His works pulsate between figuration and abstraction, between North Africa and post-war Germany, between newspaper and fabric fragments. This is biography as image. History as skin. Identity as collage.

And amidst all this: a plea for the authentic. No filters, no reproductions, no algorithms. Just the work—and the person viewing it.

OUR COURSES

Seismograph of our time.

Gérard Walther, born in 1943 in Carcassonne, France, is a representative of post-war art whose development was shaped by a multitude of personal and cultural experiences. The time he spent in Morocco and Algeria had a profound influence on him, as did his education at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Dijon and the Alsterdamm Art School in Hamburg. After successfully establishing himself as a graphic designer in Hamburg for several years, he finally devoted himself entirely to his work as a freelance artist and lecturer.

His subject is the human being. Sometimes alone, sometimes in a group. Sometimes concrete, sometimes diffuse. His works are emotional landscapes in which dynamic figures pulsate with vitality and reflect the cultural richness that surrounds them.

Walther invites viewers to delve into the depths of his art, where every color and every brushstroke tells a story – a connection between the visible and the felt, between reality and imagination.

His expressive brushwork is characterized by dynamic strokes. The use of color determines whether his works are powerful and vibrant or melancholic and restrained. He captures emotions instantly in his works, which oscillate between abstraction and figuration.

The collage-like treatment of many of his works adds different dimensions. Materials symbolizing Walther's past in North Africa and Algeria are used. Paper elements, parts of newspapers, and magazines bear witness to his graphic past, which repeatedly leaves its mark on his works. Gérard Walther remains faithful to the thematic content of his works, yet reinvents them again and again. They testify to his intense engagement with his artistic identity, society, and its development, even to its disintegration, and they continually explore human existence.

Walther's artistic world.

The dynamics of man

The central theme in Gérard Walther's art is humanity – sometimes as an individual, sometimes in a group, sometimes concrete, sometimes diffuse. His works are pulsating emotional landscapes that reflect vitality and cultural diversity. But also a profound exploration of uncertainty and fear. With dynamic brushwork and intense color schemes, the artist varies between powerful and vibrant and melancholic and subdued. In his works, which oscillate between figuration and abstraction, he brings emotions to the canvas in a raw way. His collage-like working method adds another dimension: fabrics symbolize his connection to North Africa and Algeria, where he spent part of his childhood, while newspaper clippings reflect his past as a graphic artist. These elements make each work a reinterpretation of his artistic identity – an ongoing reflection on society, decay, and human existence.

An artistic and political statement

Walther's works are far more than aesthetic representations. Shaped by the traumas of the post-war generation and the challenges of current social crises, his images carry an urgent message. They address social inequalities, geopolitical uncertainties, and the disintegration of democratic structures. At the same time, they serve as memorials and food for thought, questioning both history and the present.

Art as direct experience in times of digitalization

For Walther, art is an immediate, sensory experience that cannot be replaced by digital reproductions or artificial intelligence. In a world dominated by fleeting images and digital distractions, he relies on the physical presence of his works. He invites the audience to experience the structure, color intensity, and tactile materiality directly—without filters, without mediation.