Berthold Reiß
Works and biography

Berthold Reiß
Lucinde 21, 2008, Aquarell auf Ingrespapier

Berthold Reiß
In his enigmatic series of delicate watercolors, Reiß revisits the German schools of Romanticism, Jugendstil through to the Mediterranean Metaphysical art of De Chirico. Operating within their own utopian context and logic, the sequence of four ‘Fabel’ paintings is devoid of any perspective or narrative yet combine classical figures amongst Mediterranean arcades, horizons and botany. Bleached in their near translucent colour washes, like stain-glass windows they emanate a serene sanctity in their didactic balance of pictorial elements. Underlying Reiß’s work is Immanuel Kant’s notion of a ‘schema’ which adheres to Kandinsky’s theoretical approach to diagrams, such as the moving triangle that represents the life of the inner spirit…