Rudolf Austen, Painting and Printmaking: The Rediscovery of an Important Northern Painter
The Kunst am Dom Gallery is dedicating an exhibition to the painter and graphic artist Rudolf Austen (1931–2003), featuring selected works from his body of work. The opening reception will take place on Friday, September 25, 2026, at 6:00 p.m.
Rudolf Austen’s works are now held in private and public collections and continue to be highly valued by collectors on the art market. A focused selection of his works is therefore rarely on view. This makes the Güstrow exhibition all the more of an opportunity to take a fresh look at an artist whose work deserves recognition far beyond regional boundaries.
Rudolf Austen is one of the most distinguished painters of Mecklenburg and the Baltic Sea region. The coast, the sea, and the landscape form an essential part of his body of work. Yet Austen did not merely depict the landscape; he transformed it.
In his works, what he saw is transformed into color, surface, and light. Concrete forms can merge into the diffuse, while subtle color gradations meet powerful painterly accents. Figuration and abstraction do not appear as irreconcilable opposites, but rather as different ways of making reality visible.
It is precisely with the benefit of hindsight that a new perspective on the quality of his work emerges. More than two decades after Austen’s death, interest in his painting has by no means waned. His works continue to be collected and traded. This enduring presence points to a body of work that has outlasted the era in which it was created and still stands up convincingly to contemporary scrutiny.
The exhibition at the Kunst am Dom Gallery is therefore not intended solely as a tribute to Rudolf Austen. It aims to invite viewers to rediscover an artist while also posing the question of what power representational painting can unleash beyond its own era.
Andreas E. Wittenburg, gallery owner, philosopher, and chairman of the 1st Güstrow Art Association, will speak at the opening.
Following the exhibition opening, the gallery invites guests to join in conversations and an after-party.
