22.08 – 14.09.2025
HEI – House of European Institutes – Vila Mal, Bvd. Vasile Pârvan 1-3
Opening: 22.08.2025, 19:00
Visiting hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 17:00 – 21:00 / Free entry
The exhibition features 22 works, including six life-sized paintings, exploring the subtle and complex relationship between artist and model. Doberauer challenges traditional artistic conventions by portraying the male figure through a deeply psychological and ambivalent lens. Art critics highlight that her works are marked by intense light and rich chromatics, giving the backgrounds an aura of mystery and psychological depth.
These paintings are not mere depictions of figures, but rather confrontations of forces—between vulnerability and power, between desire and control. As noted by Philippe Vergne, French curator and director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art since 2019, “these paintings illustrate the model’s moment of maximum vulnerability, redefining traditional roles and relationships in a society where the masculine often dominates the feminine.”
Anke Doberauer rose to international prominence in the 1990s with her life-sized portrayals of men. In her work, she reversed the traditional artist=male / model=female dynamic.
She studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig under Ben Willikens, who—as early as 1991—recognized her outstanding skill and talent. Between 1991 and 1992 she received a postgraduate scholarship at the École d’Art de Marseille-Luminy, where she later taught painting and graphics (1992–1994). In 1993 she was awarded the Schmidt-Rottluff Fellowship, and between 1994 and 1995 received the annual fellowship from the Hessian Cultural Foundation for the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. In 1998–1999, Doberauer was an artist-in-residence at Collegium Budapest / Institute for Advanced Study. Since 2003, she has been Professor of Painting and Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and currently lives in Marseille and Munich.
The exhibition is organized by the Goethe-Institut Bucharest and the German Cultural Center Timișoara.
HEI – House of European Institutes is a project coordinated by Fundația9 and the British Council Romania, together with the European Union National Institutes for Culture – EUNIC Romania.
Partners: Timișoara City Hall, BRD Groupe Société Générale