Otto Niemeyer-Holstein: 'Winter on Usedom Beach'

• oil on kapak, 1964,
  width: 80 cm

Niemeyer-Holstein's paints landscapes, the sea, people and still lives. He is particularly drawn to the challenge of portraying the sea, its endlessly shifting impressions and excitement in the interaction between light, the wind and the waves. He attempts to distil instants and atmospheres. This idea infuses even his portraits and nudes.

"Otto Niemeyer-Holstein's painting acquired such power during the 1950s that it was perceived as a mainstay of humanistic art in the GDR .... Niemeyer's portrayals of the Baltic coast is a particularly valuable aspect. The painter poured his soul into these works.

They show Niemeyer-Holstein at the peak of his abilities. The images – themselves master classes in painting – depict nature, perfectly expressed as art. In the language of the colours we find the motif made spiritual. And while the observance of nature remains evident, the object surrenders its material immediacy in favour of a statement in which ingeniously subtle interpretations prevail. This painting, inspired by the boundary world between land and the sea, points first of all to itself and only then at the object it portrays." (Lothar Lang in 'Malerei und Grafik in Ostdeutschland' (Painting and graphics in East Germany), Leipzig 2002)