(Bremen-Blumenthal 1949–2013 Bremen)
‘Das große Heimweh’ [‘Deep Homesickness’], titled, signed, dated on the reverse Schwontkowski 1998, oil on canvas, 150 x 180 cm, on stretcher, (PP)

Provenance:
Galerie Polar, Brussels
whence acquired by the present owner –
Private Collection, France

Over the past three decades Schwontkowski had produced a body of paintings whose subtly powerful blend of melancholic quietism and gentle irony has evolved independently of shifting fashions in contemporary art during this time. Many of his paintings present a simple figure or object - a man, a woman, a boat, a mirror - isolated against a dense, gloomy ground patiently built up from a mixture of linseed oil, pulverised pigment, water, binding colours and bone glue. The rich atmospherics of his shadowy landscapes, rudimentary domestic situations and sundry improbable scenarios are tinged with the wry humour of a particularly downbeat surrealist and memorably suffused with his unique variety of semi-detached romanticism. […] Since Schwontkowski began exhibiting in the late 1970’s he has had numerous solo exhibitions in Germany, France, Belgium, New Zealand and the US. […] Since 2009 he had several solo exhibitions, including; Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, Domnik Mersch, Sydney, CFA, Berlin, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin and most recently at Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Zuoz, Switzerland. His work is represented in numerous collections, both public and private, in Europe and the USA.

© 2015 Kerlin Gallery