The exhibition features twenty-five works from the 1980s to the present executed solely in oil pastels, dealing with human existence in the context of human history and the history of nature. Knöller's works are accompanied by sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, Hans Arp and Alexander Calder from the Hilti Art Foundation's collection.
Paco Knöller uses his visual motifs to address human existence, both directly and indirectly. His own experience and inspiration from literature, film, and science are incorporated into his extensive oeuvre. Knöller's primary means of expression is the line. Often rendered with coloured oil pastels, they are manifested also in painterly patches. The wooden support also allows him to create lines with a knife that he uses as a drawing utensil to uncover the coloured paint grounds below the layers of oil pastel. Working with the knife gives the formative line a sense of seismographic unrest that is characteristic of Knöller's overall artistic style.
The title of the show is borrowed from Paco Knöller's series of the same name (unter mir der Himmel) and alludes to an intellectual shift of perspective.
The exhibition is curated by Uwe Wieczorek, curator of the Hilti Art Foundation.
Image: Paco Knöller, Opus 2, H 488 / H 489 / H 490, 2022 | Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin
