Pinakothek der Moderne

The best known pictures of the painter Jochen Klein (1967-1997), who died young, show idyllic landscapes: meadows of flowers, forest glades, trunks of birch trees, autumn leaves. It is only on closer inspection that the ambivalence of these scenarios became apparent. They impart a joy of life, but also an acute awareness of vulnerability and exposure to danger. Klein created the pictures in the mid-1990s in London. They characterise an artistic approach that is self-confidently committed to painting yet calls into question the authenticity frequently awarded it. Aesthetic experience of everyday life served Jochen Klein as sources of inspiration: photo-wallpaper, magazine advertisements, drugstore calendars, erotic films. He recognised in these motifs the vocabulary of a collective consciousness, which despite the tendency to clichés reveals intimate desires.