exhibition: them is us

In 1987, Dorothea Berück begins to examine illusion on the television screen in order to understand how illusions are created. She uses a video camera to capture her visual impressions and copied them photorealistically in oil on canvas. In doing so, she playfully imitates electronic image generation.

By imitating the reality of television in oil, she reflects on how something can seem so real even though it is only light in the colours white, red, green and blue. She realises that her perception is also always a projection of light – magical and unfathomable. She shares this insight in all her paintings.

In 1989, she focuses on spectators at a football match who, in their enthusiasm, forget that it is just a game. Painting enables her to look consciously, without concepts and judgments – mere seeing.

In this exhibition, she is showing works from her early phase in 1989 for the first time and offers a contemplation of „non-identifying seeing“.

Since 1997, her works have been created in Oil on canvas without photographic aids, based on direct perception. Works from 2024 can also be seen in this exhibition.