The works exhibited in the Stifterraum in autumn 2025 by Manfred Bartling all depict the human head. Etchings and felt-tip drawings reflect very different techniques and working methods. Sometimes reduced, sometimes detailed, at other times confused or distorted, the selection of works illustrates the diverse facets of his artistic practice. Central to this presentation are head drawings, including a series in which the faces are composed of two mirrored but chromatically varied halves.

The two halves appear almost Janus-like, not because they turn away from each other, but because they appear side by side as contrasting color versions of a single face. Executed sometimes in blue, sometimes in red, they confront each other like two poles: warm and cold, calm and energy, beginning and end. In their juxtaposition, these chromatic opposites form a new whole: a frontal face that contains both sides within itself.

Beginning and end are always close; where one begins, it touches the other. From this proximity, from the transition between both poles, something new arises. A moment of change that becomes visibly condensed in the image.