Herbert Falken

Herbert Falken is a clergyman in the diocese of Aachen, a draftsman, painter and printmaker.
Until 1964 he studied philosophy and theology in Bonn and Aachen. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1964, he was a chaplain, but was partially released in 1974 to devote more time to his artistic work.
As an artist Falken is self-taught. He made his first drawings in 1949, his first paintings in 1950, and had his first major exhibition in 1964 together with Benno Werth at the Suermondt Museum in Aachen. His participation in documenta VI in 1977 made him internationally known.
His works are represented in important collections, including Ludwig Forum Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen, Museum Ludwig Cologne, Kolumba Cologne, Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne, Schloss Moyland, Museum für Sepulkralkultur Kassel, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and Museum am Dom (Würzburg) and many more. The art work of the self-taught artist Herbert Falkens is an ongoing dialogue between art and church. Mostly in picture cycles he turns to religious, but above all existential themes: Despair and hopelessness as states of being and living through borderline experiences are his pictorial occasions.

Submitted by Galerie Koppelmann