Art in the Magistrale of the Accident Hospital
From September 30, 2019, to January 3, 2020, the BG Klinikum Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (UKB) at Warener Straße 7 in Marzahn showcased the solo exhibition "Mythical Fusion of Human and Animal – A Tribute to Pablo Picasso" by the painter and sculptor Diana Achtzig. It was her second solo exhibition in 2019.
The event was organized by the Förderverein zur Ausgestaltung von Kunst und Kultur e. V., which for years has provided a broad audience for selected artists in the hospital. At the opening on September 30, 2019, in the Magistrale, the Medical Director and CEO Prof. Dr. Axel Ekkernkamp and the chairman of the association, Rainer Manske, spoke. Admission was free.
Key Points
- The exhibition ran from September 30, 2019, to January 3, 2020, at the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin.
- The theme was hybrid creatures of human and animal, as a tribute to Pablo Picasso.
- The centerpiece was the painting "Heart Surgery" about organ donation.
- Diana Achtzig is a painter and sculptor of the "New Figuration" from Berlin.
"Heart Surgery": a painting about organ donation
The painting "Herz OP" addresses a debate that continues to this day: organ donation, which does not help all patients waiting for an organ. In the clear, colorful language of forms reminiscent of Picasso, the artist combines a female figure with a heart and a fish.
"Our modern, fast-paced society skillfully suppresses death from its consciousness. Only in the hospital is it omnipresent. Here, nursing staff and doctors fight daily in the sterile operating room for the lives of countless people. However, the outside world shuts itself off out of fear of the end of personal life," says Diana Achtzig.
Current events in pictures
Diana Achtzig's depictions of people capture contemporary history and translate it into a clear figuration. She is inspired by true stories from her surroundings and by forms of nature. She portrays her models realistically, then incorporates them as figures or disturbing fairy tale creatures into her visual language. The images are not meant to teach, but to capture what is and what was.
An example is her first solo exhibition in 2019, "30 Years of the Fall of the Wall". It featured people who experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and the reunification on October 3, 1990, and was on display until October 21, 2019, at the Leipzig branch of the Stasi Records Archive at Dittrichring 24.
In addition to her art, the artist has been committed to social causes for years, such as the charity shops of the Deutsche Kleiderstiftung and at fundraising galas for the Deutsche Krebsstiftung, the Red Cross, and the "Ein Herz für Kinder" foundation.
The artist Diana Achtzig
Diana Achtzig was born in Berlin in 1973 and considers herself a representative of the "New Figuration". In 1999, she graduated from the University of the Arts Berlin. Afterwards, she took lessons for years with Alex Bär from the environment of the New Leipzig School, who had studied with Arno Rink at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig.
For seven years, she taught as a lecturer, including at the University of the Arts Berlin, HTW Berlin, the Academy of Fashion & Design (AMD), and the BEST-Sabel Vocational School for Design. Today, she teaches sculpture and free painting at her Achtzig Kunstakademie Berlin. As a gallerist, she promotes international artists, first in the Netherlands, today with the Achtzig Galerie Berlin in Prenzlauer Berg.
According to her own statements, her works are in about 40 private and public collections. You can read more about her painting in the article Kunst von Diana Achtzig kaufen: Was die Malerin der HGB Leipzig auszeichnet.