The painter Albrecht Gehse does not make it easy for us. He heaves a great cycle into the world, one that says, even in terms of its dimensions: here I am, from now on you’re gonna have to put up with me. What should this art be called? Walpurgis night, pandemonium?

The painter’s perspective is a grand array of pictures (similar to the Dance of Death) regarding the gloominess of worldly existence in the past and present.

What characterises Gehse’s pictures is something that is rare enough in contemporary art: the creation of his own myths, in large dimensions – figuratively as well as literally, their perspective is expansive not petty.

Kept together by means of a masterly mode of painting, one that ranges from the illusionist representational, via sketches thrown onto the surface with virtuosity, right through to the most feverous orgies of colour, Gehse spirits us away into scenes of apparent confusion and uncertainty.
At the second glance, these scenes arrange themselves into myths of the unmistakable kind. Everywhere the path from the idyll to the catastrophe is short. Laughter is accompanied by horror, devouring accompanied by being devoured. Powerful art demands courage, both from the artist and from the viewing public. Gehse’s cycle «Turmoil – 50 Pictures of the World» is just such a test of courage. It is a test worth taking.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Stölzl