Ben Willikens. Cold - Chambers

The ALBERTINA MUSEUM is showing the distinctive oeuvre of Ben Willikens from March to May in celebration of an important donation by Siegfried Weishaupt.

The desolate works by this legendary rector of the Munich Academy captivate the viewer with their striking coldness. Willikens introduces us to his own experience of the barbarism and cruelty of emptiness as an impressive thermal event of color. This exhibition concentrates in particular on the artist’s early and late output.

Born in Leipzig in 1939, Willikens spent nearly a year in a closed institution due to illness in 1969. The artist came to terms with this drastic experience in a series of acrylic paintings that capture the icy imagery of corridors, memorable places, and objects from the clinic. In his late oeuvre, Ben Willikens deals with those cold, misanthropic places that featured prominently in the history of the Third Reich—from Mengele’s deadly laboratory to Hitler’s estate on the Obersalzberg.

The exhibtion is on view from 4 March until 1 May 2022.