Helmut Middendorf is a contemporary German painter. His large-scale, gestural paintings are brilliantly-colored and representational, populated by images of nightlife, sexuality, and emotion. “The use of color in painting doesn’t mean anything else than to entertain,” the artist has said. “When you paint, you want mainly to entertain and surprise yourself.” As a Neo-Expressionist, he studied under K.H. Hödicke, a painter and major player in Berlin’s Neo-Expressionist art scene. Middendorf’s earlier works retain a sense of tension, moving toward emotional detachment. He notably spent time in New York after receiving a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service in 1980.
Courtesy of artnet.com