Klaus Drechsler

Klaus Drechsler looks back on a large and enduring body of work, always with an eye on the fragile beauty and transience of life. His paintings, graphic works and sculptures grew steadily over five decades without any internal breaks, independent yet in constant friction with art history and his time.

curriculum vitae

1940	born in Ober-Dammer / Lower Silesia
1947	relocation to Upper Lusatia
1957-1960	attendance at the Workers' and Peasants' Faculty at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts
1961-1966	study at the Dresden University of Fine Arts under Paul Michaelis
1966	member of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR
1966-1969	Aspirant at the Dresden University of Fine Arts
1966-2006	creative director of the painting and drawing circle Pirna-Sonnenstein e.V.
1969	since then freelance work
1970-1980	concentration on intaglio printing
1979	since then multicolored screen prints, color lithographs and algraphs
1983	award for portrait »100 ausgewählte Grafiken der DDR«
1990-2006	lectureship at the Technical University of Dresden
1991	member of the Saxon Association of Artists
1991-2005	head of the painting circle for the disabled, working class welfare organization Pirna-Sonnenstein
1992	since then painting therapies for psychiatric patients, Pirna Hospital
1994-2002	teaching position at the Dresden University of Fine Arts
1996	honorary member of the Kuratorium Altstadt Pirna e.V.
1997	increased focus on sculptural work
2001	cultural Award of Pirna and Sparkasse Freital-Pirna
2002	W. G. Paul Prize (II) for Graphics
	lives and works in Dresden-Wachwitz

Exhibition at the Galerie Himmel

Collection
Gerlint Soeder & Erhard Frommhold

23. November 2024 — 25. January 2025

Exhibition at the Galerie Himmel

Klaus Drechsler
Fragile beauty

05. April 2025 — 14. June 2025

Capturing and highlighting the visually »fruitful« moment of a situation that is seen as real or perceived as surreal is the key. Using pencils, watercolours, oil paints or algraph as his preferred printing technique, and for the past two decades also sculptural forms and even the medium of hand drawing, which usually comes at the beginning and often already offers him solutions: he does not hide the persistent struggle for truthfulness in his works – they thrive on it.

Jördis Lademann
Klaus Drechsler. Malerei, Graphik, Plastik, Dresden 2016, S. 9

Klaus Drechsler's still life arrangements are multi-dimensional in their conception. The range of motifs varies from objects from the immediate everyday environment to objects with extensive symbolic content. Playing cards, seashells and skulls provide the artist with the intellectual and creative framework for his perpetual dialogue with the theme of vanitas. Impressed by the calmly inspired, objectively clear compositions of Spanish masters such as Francisco Zurbarán and Juan Sánchez Cotán, which are filled with bright colours and firm corporeality, Klaus Drechsler similarly lends his objects an enhanced conceptual conciseness.

Ophelia Rehor
Klaus Drechsler. Bilder aus drei Jahrzehnten, Bautzen: Stadtmuseum 2000, S. 4

Drechsler's character is strong enough to fit into a great tradition without worrying about marketable avant-gardism. He is as close to the old German masters as he is to the efforts to melt Classical Modernism into a renewed, contemporary awareness of tradition.

Diether Schmidt
Laudatio zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung »Aquarelle und Zeichnungen aus Büchern«, Kulturetage Dresden-Prohlis 1991, in: Klaus Drechsler. Bilder aus drei Jahrzehnten, Bautzen: Stadtmusuem 2000, S. 87

further exhibitions

1979	Pretiosensaal, Dresdner Schloss, Dresden
1980	Kunstgalerie Bautzen: »Aquarelle, Handzeichnungen, Druckgrafik«
1982	Galerie im Cranachhaus, Weimar (with Margret Weise und Rolf-Ruediger Weise)
1983	Galerie Nord, Dresden
1988	Zentralinstitut für Kernforschung, Rossendorf
1989	Kleine Galerie, Hoyerswerda
1996	Ernst-Rietschel-Kulturring, Pulsnitz
2004	Martinshof, Rothenburg: »Gleichnisse«
2005	Weinbergkirche Dresden-Pillnitz: »Nähe und Ferne«
2008	Freiberger Kunstverein e.V., Freiberg
2010	Stadtmuseum Pirna
	Villa Eschebach, Dresden
	Kunstsammlung Lausitz, Senftenberg
2012	Kreuzkirche, Dresden: »Menschen unterm Kreuz«
2013	Stadtmuseum Pirna: »Von Früchten, Mythen und Gemäuern - watercolours, colour graphics, bronzes«
2015	Stadtmuseum Pirna: »Schule des Sehens«
	GALERIE HIMMEL, Dresden: »Wachwitzer Elegien«
2017	GALERIE HIMMEL, Dresden: »Herbstzeitlose«
2018	Klinikum Hoyerswerda, Geriatrische Tagesklinik: »Sächsische Landschaften und Stillleben«
2019	Koenigshain Castle, Koenigshain: »Die Stille und das große Rennen« (on the 80th birthday)
2020	Kleine Galerie im Stadtmuseum, Doebeln: »Stilles Leben – Hexenritt«
	Maegdleinschule, Pirna: »Schuetzenswerte Gemaeuer«
	GALERIE HIMMEL, Dresden: »Vita brevis« (catalogue)
2021	Galerie Budissin, Bautzen: »Sinnbild, Allegorie, Vision im plastischen Werk«
2023	Galerie Klinger, Liegau-Augustusbad: »Kompositionen in Farbe«
2024	GALERIE HIMMEL, Dresden: »Sommerstrand«
2025	GALERIE HIMMEL, Dresden: »Fragile Schoenheit«
	Stadtmuseum Pirna: »Schuetzenwerte Gemaeuer«
	Ostsaechsische Kunsthalle, Pulsnitz: »Werkgruppen der 60er Jahre bis zur Gegenwart«