Ben Willikens

Ben Willikens became known for his paintings of vacant spaces where time seems to stand still. For a long time gray dominated his palette, and his subtle orchestration of light and perspective attracted both beholders and interpreters who found a “theater of absence” in his work. Yet Willikens’s oeuvre is more extensive and multifaceted than previous catalogues from his many exhibitions have led to believe. Now, this comprehensive overview is the first to present the entire range of his oeuvre. In more than 250 pictures, from his drawings of the 1960s to the Anstaltsbilder (institution paintings) and his Abendmahl (Last Supper) of the 1970s, the Gegenräume (counter spaces) and ORTE (SITES) to the ceiling painting known as the Leipziger Firmament (2014), this survey recapitulates an artistic development in which car paint, watercolors, drawings, photography, gouaches, collages, acrylic paint, and silkscreens have played a role—and for the last decade also the entire range of colors. (German Edition 978-3-7757-4296-2) Exhibition: Kunsthalle Weishaupt, Ulm 16.10.2016 – 26.3.2017