997 - Eberhard Hückstädt, In Front of the Mirror, mixed media with certificate, nude 1995

Eberhard Hückstädt, In Front of the Mirror, mixed media with certificate, nude 1995 Mixed media/paper, mounted on backing board, dated '15 II (19)95' and signed at centre left, at upper left a further, faintly legible signature and date. Female half-nude seen from behind: the pale body, modelled in cream and ochre tones, turns to the left. A strong red field accompanies the figure on the left, a deep blue block stands at lower right; the edges are framed by rust-red and ochre zones. The composition lives from the alternation of thinly and thickly applied layers of paint and from incised contour lines. Accompanied by the certificate of Galerie Hohmann Walsrode with the artist's name, title, technique, measurements and catalogue raisonné number 3131. Good condition, upper and lower edge with slight creases. Image 78 x 52 cm (HxW). Mount, behind glass, framed in a silver-coloured moulding, overall size 103.5 x 76.5 cm (HxW). The glance into the mirror is one of the oldest subjects in the painting of the nude and links the depiction of the body with the question of self-perception and transience. Eberhard Hückstädt, born in Potsdam in 1936, came by way of an apprenticeship as a decorative painter and the Heiligendamm technical college to his studies under Heinz Lohmar and Rudolf Bergander and was among the most important portrait painters of his generation in the GDR; in 1984 he moved to Hanover. In his works of the 1990s he increasingly dissolves the figure into fields of colour and incised marks without abandoning the reference to the body. These sheets were distributed by Galerie Hohmann, which issued them with a catalogue number and a certificate.