Description
‘Fru Hel’ by Robert Deutsch
Artist: Robert Deutsch
Title: ‘Fru Hel’
Medium: Acrylic on paper
Dimensions: 18.9″ x 16.5″
Framing: Unframed
Year of Creation: 2023
About the Artwork:
Characteristic of his painterly style, the artist uses humour as a catalyst for considering the darker realities of modern life. Sarcasm, he believes, has an enormous persuasive power. In this series, Deutsch paints a troupe of unusual protagonists, parodies of the typically heroic figures found in modern literature and pop culture, and which he consequently resists placing into the idealised roles they so often occupy. Instead, they come to represent various traits of the modern person: greed, egotism and prejudice, but also tolerance, creativity and self love are among some of the attributes embodied.
Blending pop aesthetics with modern surrealism, Deutsch creates vibrantly ambiguous spaces inhabited by a host of strange and eccentric characters, in order to poke fun at the more sinister aspects of modern life. Nevertheless, his works retain a sense of playful humanity as he graciously let us all in on the joke.
The painting ‘Fru Hel’ is based on a germanic mythological character ‘Frau Holle’ (Mother Hulda). She stands for the circle of life and is the pregod of all germanic gods.
About the Artist:
(Artist Bio)
Robert Deutsch,
1981 born in Köthen, GDR
2007-2012 Bachelor of Arts, Illustration and Graphic Design in Halle (Saale) at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle(Saale), Prof. Atak/Georg Barber
2013-2014 Master of Arts, Editorial Design, Prof. Atak/Georg Barber
2014 Winner of the Giebichenstein Designpreis „Beste Kommunikation“
2015 Comicbuchpreis, Berthold Leibinger Stiftung, finalist
2015 German Design Award, nominated
2015 Stipend, Kunststiftung Sachsen-Anhalt
2015-2016 Stipend, Graduiertenstipendium
2016 German Design Award, nominated
2018 sächsischer Staatspreis für Design for the
Graphic Novel about Alan Turing
2019 honored by Art Directors Club Germany
Since 2012: freelance Illustrator and Artist based in Leipzig/Germany
Selected shows: Porto, Berlin, Los Angeles, Gent, Leipzig and many more.