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| Rainer Fetting | |
|---|---|
| Name | Rainer Fetting |
| Birth date | 31 December 1949 |
| Birth place | Wilhelmshaven, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Painter, sculptor |
| Movement | Neue Wilde, Figurative painting |
Rainer Fetting is a German painter and sculptor associated with the late 20th-century resurgence of figurative painting in Europe, often linked to the Neue Wilde movement in Berlin. His work spans expressive portraiture, urban landscapes, and bronze sculpture, engaging with public space and German cultural memory. Fetting's practice intersects with contemporaries from the Berlin art scene and international figures in painting and sculpture.
Born in Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony, Fetting studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg under the direction of Alfred Hrdlicka and alongside students who would later be associated with the German painting revival. In Hamburg he encountered the pedagogy of Klaus Staeck and the institutional milieu of the Kunsthalle Hamburg, which informed his early commitment to figurative representation. During the 1970s Fetting moved to Berlin, entering the cultural networks around Max Klinger's legacy and frequenting exhibitions at the Neue Nationalgalerie and the independent spaces influenced by artists such as Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter.
Fetting's pictorial language developed through dialogue with late modernist and neo-expressionist tendencies, drawing formal inspiration from painters like Edvard Munch, Francis Bacon, and Willem de Kooning, while engaging subject matter connected to Berlin life and German iconography. His palette often employs saturated reds, blues, and blacks, and his brushwork combines quick gestural strokes with worked surfaces reminiscent of Jean-Michel Basquiat's immediacy and Lucian Freud's tactile figuration. The sculptural turn in his career echoes the public monuments of Anselm Kiefer and the figurative bronzes of Käthe Kollwitz, translating painted presence into three-dimensional portraiture that responds to sites such as Potsdamer Platz and Alexanderplatz.
Fetting is known for several prominent series and individual works that map urban and cultural subjects. His early "Berlin Portraits" depict figures in the Kreuzberg and Mitte districts, thematically linked to the social realism of Otto Dix and the urban panoramas of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. A notable sculptural project includes a bronze group installed in a public square, conceptually resonant with August Kiss's equestrian monuments and with memorial practices visible in the Holocaust Memorial discourse. Fetting's interpretations of celebrities and political figures recall the portraiture traditions of Andy Warhol while maintaining a material intensity akin to Georg Baselitz.
Fetting's career advanced through solo and group exhibitions at major institutions and galleries, featuring in shows at the Neue Galerie Berlin, the Kunstverein Hannover, and international venues such as the Stedelijk Museum and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao where neo-expressionist currents were highlighted. He participated in landmark group exhibitions surveying German painting alongside artists like A.R. Penck, Jörg Immendorff, and Eberhard Havekost. Public commissions and retrospectives at municipal museums in Hamburg and Dresden consolidated his reputation, while gallery representation in New York City and London extended his presence on the global art market.
Critics have situated Fetting within debates about the return to figuration in late-20th-century art, comparing his emotive handling to Friedrich Gauermann's 19th-century realism and to contemporary painters such as Markus Lüpertz. Reviews in German and international press discuss his engagement with memory, identity, and urban experience, invoking dialogues with the exhibitions curated by Harald Szeemann and theoretical frameworks promoted by scholars at institutions like the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His influence is traceable in younger generations of painters and sculptors trained in Berlin academies and in artists working on public sculpture commissions across Germany and neighboring Netherlands and France.
Works by Fetting are held in major collections including the Berlinische Galerie, the Deutsche Bundesbank collection, and municipal holdings in Hamburg and Munich. Public commissions include bronze sculptures and painted public murals installed in urban contexts, part of cultural programs administered by the Senate of Berlin and municipal arts councils such as the Kulturamt Hannover. His pieces have been acquired by corporate collectors and displayed in institutional surveys at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and regional museums in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Fetting has received recognition through national and regional prizes and honors associated with contributions to contemporary German art, including grants from arts foundations and selection for state-sponsored commissions administered by bodies like the Kulturstiftung des Bundes and the Bundeskunstsammlung. His career milestones include fellowship invitations and participation in curated biennials and cultural festivals organized by institutions such as the Documenta program and international art fairs where German postwar painting traditions are represented.
Category:German painters Category:German sculptors Category:1949 births Category:Living people