Klaus Drechsler's paintings resonate with quiet tones. The central theme is vanitas, the cycle of becoming and passing away, of beauty and mortality. The basic motifs, such as fruit or bread, are unspectacular and offer suitable metaphors for transience. Muted colours, softly glowing, determine the precious colour scheme. Rich in colour yet subdued, with gentle transitions of light and shadow, a quiet tone emerges. That demonstrates a deep respect for the subject of the painting.
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Stillleben mit Azalee und Buddhaplastik”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Große Meeresschnecke”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Charons Barke”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Stilleben mit Meeresschnecken und Meeresmuschel”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Abstelltisch mit Räucherfisch, Tomaten, Paprika”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Kleines Stillleben mit Kaktusfrucht und Birne”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Die kleine Frau W.”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Stillleben mit Kakaotopf”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Weißbrot mit Birnenteller”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Maske mit Meeresschnecken”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Kleiner Kultwagen II”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Fang-Maske mit Anthurienblüte”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Häuser an der Seidewitz I (Zuschendorf-Pirna)”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Verfallene Scheune II (Tronitz)”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Waschhaus (Oberpoyritz)”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Wirtschaftsgebäude mit Holzschuppen”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Philosoph”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Alte Dame mit roten Käppi (Erinnerung an Charlotte)”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Blick zur Frauenkirche”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Geräucherter Fisch II”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Erster Flugversuch”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Stillleben mit Früchten”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Aufgeschnittener Kürbis mit Birne III”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Zitronenzweig auf großer Schale”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Stillleben mit roten Meeresfisch, Glas, Weintraube und Zitrone”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Neugier”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Stillleben mit großem Kürbisstück”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Stilleben mit türkischer Kanne”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Mohnzopf mit Apfel”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Grüne Kanne und Zitronenteller”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Vier Falläpfel”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Stillleben mit Melonenscheibe”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Apfel und Schädel (Herbstgedanken)”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Frauenakt”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Überfahrt”
Drechsler, Klaus. – „Die Getrichterten”
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.
Böhlitz, Michael / Himmel, Anja (Hrsg.). – „Klaus Drechsler. Vita brevis”.
2020. Galerie Himmel (Eigenverlag), Dresden. – Ausstellungskatalog, von Klaus Drechsler. – 21 x 21 cm (Format).
8°, Broschur, 138 S., 56 Werk-Abb., 2 fotogr. Portraits. - Katalog zur Jubiläumsausstellung anlässlich des 80. Geburtstages ″Klaus Drechsler - Vita brevis″ in der Galerie Himmel in Dresden, 22.5.-18.7.2020. - Geleitwort von Anja Himmel und Michael Böhlitz, Texte von Frank Oehmichen, Anke Fröhlich-Schauseil und Jördis Lademann. Ausführlicher Katalogteil mit wesentlichen Arbeiten des Künstlers. - Erstausgabe, neu.
Here bright flowers, single fruits and vegetables, bread, cutlery and crockery, a smoked fish on newspaper. There a village green with a farmstead and pond, crumbling walls in front of large trees, undulating meadows in the foreground and a cloudy sky behind. The subjects in Klaus Drechsler's paintings are everyday and familiar, often timeless and mostly quiet. And this despite the fact that many of the compositions are characterised by bright colours, very strong, often complementary colour contrasts and large shapes and lines that the picture formats, with the motifs viewed from below, above or even from falling perspective.
The painter, graphic artist and sculptor, who lives in Dresden- Wachwitz, is presenting his fifth exhibition at Galerie Himmel, entitled "Fragile Beauty". In it he shows oil paintings, watercolours and bronze sculptures from the early 1990s to the present day, thus providing a valid cross-section of his work over the last decades of his artistic career, which spans more than 60 years.
Klaus Drechsler was born in 1940 in Ober Dammer near Breslau (Wrocław) in former Lower Silesia and initially studied at the Arbeiter- und Bauernfakultät at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (HfBK) Dresden. He worked as a concrete worker for a short time before studying under Paul Michaelis at the HfBK from 1961 to 1966. Then he lead the Mal- und Zeichenzirkel Pirna Sonnenstein e.V. (formerly at VEB Strömungsmaschinen Pirna) as a highly regarded teacher for 40 years. From 1990 he also taught at the Technischen Universität Dresden and, from 1994, at the HfBK.
With every sheet of paper, with every painting, Klaus Drechsler sets himself the task of accurately portraying the respective object or person in accordance with his own artistic vision. That is why his watercolours and oil paintings are not created in his studio, but on location – in nature, in the old village centre, at the train station or in the concert hall. The artist's aim is to capture the 'actual', the 'typical', as he himself puts it. With great openness, perseverance and precision, he therefore struggles in his work process to find a valid representation of the essence of things, their 'uniqueness'.
In keeping with this artistic credo, Drechsler's bronze sculptures are also characterised by a strive for expression and immediacy, whereby he seeks less the large, closed form than in his paintings, but rather allows the contours and green patinated, lightly polished surfaces to vibrate openly, sometimes restlessly. Theprecondition for all art forms in Klaus Drechsler's work is the artist's great curiosity and sensitivity towards the characteristics and beauty of the world around us, combined with a deep awareness of its fragility and transience.
Dr. Teresa Ende
Klaus Drechsler shows us excerpts from his world under the theme ″Fragile Poetry″. excerpts from his world. It is a microcosm of calmness, silence and restraint. Drechsler does not look out into the wide world. He finds his Arcadia in what surrounds him.
Dieter Hoefer
Unaufgeregte Betrachtung der umgebenden Welt, in: Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten vom 16.05.2025
Klaus Drechsler,
Stillleben mit Azalee und Buddhaplastik, 2004
Öl auf Hartfaser, 41 x 69,5 cm
