1042 - Schäfer, Daniel, also known as “Braebys” (1958–2025) - Three surreal formal compositions, acrylic on canvas, signed in the lower left corner with the names of the figures who inspired this painting: “BRAEBYS – Picasso – Beuys…,” numbered on the back, dimensions 40 x 30 cm, unframed, provenance: owned by actress Alice Hoffmann (the artist’s former partner)

Schäfer, Daniel, also known as “Braebys” (1958–2025) - Three surreal formal compositions, acrylic on canvas, signed in the lower left corner with the names of the figures who inspired this painting: “BRAEBYS – Picasso – Beuys…,” numbered on the back, dimensions 40 x 30 cm, unframed, provenance: owned by actress Alice Hoffmann (the artist’s former partner) - Daniel Schäfer’s paintings are full of intense color, energy, and surreal to abstract variations in form in the style of Neo-Expressionism. The last exhibition of his works took place posthumously at the Schätzlerpalais in Augsburg (March–July 2025) and was titled “Cry for Color—Paintings by Braebys.” The work of this highly idiosyncratic artist was strongly influenced by his own life story, which included some traumatic episodes. As a way out of life’s crises, the self-taught artist began to paint intensively and cycle excessively. He founded the art movement known as “Bicycleism,” which was less a classical art style with a fixed theoretical framework than a way of life and art form he developed himself, in which this mode of transportation (i.e., the constant state of being on the move, physical exertion, perception of the surroundings, and encounters with fellow human beings) became an integral part of his artistic identity. For him, the constant turning of the wheels, driven by his own physical strength, symbolically referred to the movement in which our entire creation is ceaselessly engaged—from the Earth as a planet down to the molecules and tiniest atoms, the fundamental building blocks of matter.