Oil painting has been a central component of Andreas Felger’s work since the 1980s. After his early work was mainly devoted to woodcuts and watercolour painting, he increasingly turned to oil and canvas from 1985 onwards. At first he experimented with representational or narrative motifs in restrained colours.
In the 1990s, more abstract canvases in brightly coloured palettes followed. Colour fields, previously derived from nature, gain independence. The pictures become larger, the painterly gestures freer. In 2001, Andreas Felger created nine three-dimensional wooden reliefs in oil (350 x 350 x 350 cm) in the former Church Pavilion of the EXPO 2000 in Hannover, which now stands in the Volkenroda Monastery in Thuringa. They are a milestone in his development as an expansive painter.
Since the 2000s, explorations of different forms and techniques have led to ever new series in oil: line-accentuated cycles in dynamic expressiveness, abstracted human silhouettes, geometrically constructed or organic-looking colour fields of meditative calm. In “pattern” sequences, the brush determines the pictorial effect, whether spotted or linear.
Compositions of superimposed colour stripes and strokes reveal the artist’s roots in textile design. Above all, however, is the love of colour, to which Felger lends an always haptic, approachable quality by scuffing the surface.
Important exhibitions with oil paintings by Andreas Felger can be found here.
