BARTLING POP
Paintings and graphics from four decades
Exhibition at the DRK Klinikum Berlin Westend, Surgery Wards 1b & 4b
Scientific studies have shown that art has a positive effect on mental and physical health. The DRK Kliniken Berlin are convinced that art is an essential component of innovative medicine. For this reason, they organise an art programme inside the clinic buildings, with changing exhibitions ranging from established artistic positions to exciting newcomers. In up to seven parallel exhibitions, around 350 to 400 works of art are shown at various locations within the clinic. The educational programme of the KUNST im WESTEND e.V. association includes regular guided tours for patients, staff and guests, public events, artist talks and exhibition publications. The cultural programme is complemented by high-quality symposia, readings and concerts. The clinics' parks in Westend and at the Köpenick site are also used for the presentation of sculptures.
This concept sets a new standard for the interplay between medicine, science and culture.
The works of the painter and graphic artist Manfred Bartling (1938-2020) can be seen in the surgery department (wards 1b & 4b). Together with his wife Elisabeth Bartling, he founded the Asylum of Art Foundation in 1999, which has been based in the Haus Kunst Mitte exhibition centre since 2008.
BARTLING POP at the DRK Klinik Berlin Westend, Surgery 1b & 4b © HKM
BARTLING POP at the DRK Klinik Berlin Westend, Surgery 1b & 4b © HKM
BARTLING POP at the DRK Klinik Berlin Westend, Surgery 1b & 4b © HKM
BARTLING POP at the DRK Klinik Berlin Westend, Surgery 1b & 4b © HKM
BARTLING POP at the DRK Klinik Berlin Westend, Surgery 1b & 4b © HKM
BARTLING POP at the DRK Klinik Berlin Westend, Surgery 1b & 4b © HKM
Bartling's art is characterised by vibrant colours, graphic experiments and serial working methods. Bartling did not endeavour to fit in. Only the involvement of chance often played a role in the creation of his pictures: spot painting, colour movements, a seemingly spontaneous pictorial composition and the visualisation of the creative process dominate his pictorial worlds. In addition, words or entire texts, certainly also inspired by his wife's writings and poems, were able to complement the pictorial with the linguistic.
He himself called his pop-expressive drawings and paintings of household objects and foodstuffs such as eggs, breakfast rolls or colourful vegetable still lifes ‘Bartling POP’. With these works, most of which date from the 1970s, he occupies a completely unique, hitherto undiscovered niche in German Pop Art. They are at the centre of this exhibition. At the same time, abstract ink paintings and graphic studies from the 1980s and 1990s will be shown, which further develop Bartling's pop imagery of the 1970s.
A cooperation between Haus Kunst Mitte and the Asyl der Kunst Stiftung with the association KUNST im WESTEND e.V.
Price list on request
Opening: 18.05.2025
DRK Kliniken Berlin Westend, Surgery Wards 1b & 4b
Spandauer Damm 130, 14050 Berlin