Cloud – Cuckoo – Land: The Paintings of Norbert Bisky

Artist: Norbert Bisky
Discussant: Girish Shahane
In association with Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai

November 28, 2008 | 6.30 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

Norbert Bisky (b. 1970 in Leipzig) ranks amongst the most important German artists of his generation, representing a new realism.  To quote The New York Times: The boys that populate his paintings look like modern-day Adonises, with their washboard abs and golden skin, but Bisky, who is preparing for a show at Galerie Mirchandani+ Steinruecke in Mumbai this Fall, is not necessarily just painting shiny, happy Aryan people.

Norbert Bisky decided to become a painter in 1989, when the Berlin wall came down and was tutored in the master-class of the neo-expressionist, George Baselitz in Berlin. Primarily a figurative painter, his images are resonances of global culture with references to Pop art, print and advertising, Socialist poster art, Op art and photography. Bisky opines ‘‘my paintings look simple on the surface, but they’re not.  I’m German, so I think too much.’’ Indeed, his toned bodies explode into bloody entrails and houses fly in the air, creating one big apocalyptic mess.

Noted art critic and writer Girish Shahane will converse with Norbert Bisky on his philosophy, aesthetics and world-view.