Stefan Kürten: Millefleurs

Stefan Kürten likes to say that every weekend of his childhood was spent accompanying his parents and their realtor in their search for the “perfect home.” In his eighth solo exhibition, marking the 20th anniversary of working with Hosfelt Gallery, Kürten explores the deep and universal yearning to find that quintessential place.

With eleven paintings on paper, Kürten imagines what the perfect home would look like. Chic. Modern. Glassy. Immaculate. Affluent. Open. Enveloped by and harmonious with nature. Safe. Epitomizing the dazzling promise of economic prosperity and social stability in the post-World War II West. These images exert a powerful emotional pull. Yet are also — often indefinably — uncanny.

Anchoring the exhibition are two major new works. The first is a monumental canvas, two years in the making — an encyclopedic masterpiece that aims to be a reflection of everything in our world. The second is a 5 ½ x 7 foot multi-panel work on paper representing the tenacious human belief in progress — our desire to make life happier and the world a better place.

Stefan Kürten is a professor at the famed Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where, as a young man, he studied with Michael Buthe. Kürten is also an alumnus of the San Francisco Art Institute. His recent solo museum exhibitions include Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany; Künstlerverein Malkasten, Düsseldorf; Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, Germany; Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; and Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg, Germany. Several of his paintings are in the Saatchi Gallery and were included in “Gesamtkunstwerk, New Art From Germany” in 2011. His work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as well as many others. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.