Heinrich Dumser was born on 28 November 1926, in Vienna. In the period 1941-1943 he studied at the Professor’s Hans Kautzki studio; scenography and stage techniques under Professor Nidermozer; figural and portrait drawing under Professor Kepel. He began work as a theatre painter and assistant at the Vienna Volksoper in 1945. He became a Director of the painting studios in the same opera in 1965. In 1967 he took part in an exhibition at Künstlerhaus, Vienna; and in 1968 he took part in an exhibition of the Wien Secession. In 1972 he became an Assistant Director of the drawing schools of all state theaters and taught students of theatric painting. He was awarded the Golden Symbol of Honor of the republic of Austria in 1974. In 1986 he had a solo exhibition within the Vienna festival Weeks. 1990 – Professor of Painting. Died on 3 March 2005.

Professor Heinrich Dumser worked in the field of painting and scenography. He was one of the most prominent theatric painters in Austria, designer of numerous theatric performances and teacher of generations of scenography students. He received his in-depth scenography knowledge from practice, guided by renowned names of the Austrian theatric circles. His painting is highly influenced by his theatric sense of colors and dramatic effect. He achieved expressive, intense states having emotional impact on the senses.

The Sofia Art Gallery presents 69 paintings created within 1983- 2004.

STYLES UND STILE Contemporary German Painting from the Scharpff Collection

04 October 2005 - 30 October 2005

Goethe Institut-Sofia and Sofia Art Gallery have the pleasure of presenting contemporary German art exhibition. 30 paintings by 12 artists exemplify the most recent trends in the development of German painting.

Traditional painting has been out of the public interest, as conceptual strategies and experimenting with new expressive means became dominant. Since the 90’s, however, representatives belonging to the generation of the youngest German artists working on the territory of United Germany have been actively redirecting themselves to painting. Different, mostly figurative artistic languages have started to appear.

Their painting has a new global aesthetics, defined by photography and film-making, by computer graphics and industrial design. In the paintings exhibited, traditional figurative languages are linked to the 20th century typical expressionist and socialist realism styles. Thus, a new kind of universal situating of fashion as styles, unique for each artist, is created. The power of the works is born from the contradiction between video games and neo surrealism, nostalgia and revision of the old, expressiveness and cool objectiveness.

During the past years, paintings by Neo Rauch, Franz Ackermann and more artists have conquered not only the international expressive art markets but also museums and exhibition halls from Western Europe, the USA and Japan. The Ute and Rudolf Scharpff family of collectors have been far-sighted about this new painting well before its boom. The present exhibition features selected works from their collection.

The exhibition features works by: Franz Ackermann, André Butzer, Eberhard Havekost, Andreas Hofer, Martin Kobe, Jonathan Meese, Albert Oehlen, Neo Rauch, Daniel Richter, David Schnell, Markus Selg, Matthias Weischer.

Curator: Nina Zimmer

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in German and Bulgarian language.