Oliver Bak (*1992) has become known for his historically inspired, vibrant painterly topographies, which stem from a deep engagement with the materials, procedures and influences of painting. His meticulous practice that foregrounds texture and an original use of color produces multilayered surfaces brimming with art historical and literary references. On Bak’s canvases, his aptitude for invocations of the medium’s history entwines with the themes, images and atmosphere of avant-garde poetry and myths of decadence and destruction. Interested in how the stories that have defined collective imagination develop, he delves into one particular narrative at a time, which provides the starting point for each of his bodies of work.
Oliver Bak, Poppyhead, 2024
Photo: Timo Ohler
Photo: Timo Ohler
The Flowers of Evil
Group Exhibition
Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg, Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Through May 4, 2025
Starting with Odilon Redon’s charcoal drawing Fleur du mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1880) in the Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg, this exhibition traces a path from early modern art to contemporary works, shedding light on the influence that Charles Baudelaire’s well-known, eponymous collection of poems has had on art. Alongside a selection of works directly related to the poems, such as Hannah Höch’s painting Les Fleurs du mal (1922–24) and Albert Birkle’s work Die kleinen Alten (1923), the exhibition also addresses individual topics such as beauty and decay or artifice and nature. The exhibition features around 120 works. In addition to paintings, drawings, and graphic art, the exhibition includes photographs, film clips, and digital media, as well as objects and installations.
Learn more
