1976
Harald Metzkes
Harald Metzkes, photo: Inge Zimmermann
Together with artist friends such as Manfred Böttcher and Ernst Schroeder, the painter Harald Metzkes set himself apart from socialist realism at an early stage. Black contours, sharp drawings and symbolic elements dominated these first years and were the expression of a young, searching generation of artists, and their fears and hardships. For over 60 years Metzkes has sensitively brought figures to life in his pictorial worlds, drawing the viewer into still lifes, animated landscapes and touching sceneries. “After the war, the paintings of the German Expressionists seem to me to be the only possible language [...] Picasso transformed everything into painting.” (Harald Metzkes, 1975)