Starting from the early 1960s, Rudi Tröger (1929–2025) devoted himself to the classic subjects of landscape, portraiture and still life. Tröger’s art draws inspiration from nature, but rather than depicting it, it transforms it trough the construction of pictorial space, which brings things into being. The painter was not interested in their objectivity, but solely in those metamorphoses from the ‘visual experience’ to the ‘image idea’ that occur in the usually lengthy process of painting and through the used painting mediums.
But his pictorial approach, the complex genesis of each work reveals traits of fragility, unrest, and doubt, always including the category of failure. Tröger's contemporaneity, the sign of “presentness” in the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, is founded in these traits. When viewed only superficially, however, his work threatens to be easily misunderstood as a result of its alleged other-worldliness and outsider position. Ultimately, it is this ambivalence and permanent tension between the retrospective analysis of his subject matter and the painterly act set firmly in the present that Tröger continually reimagined. This is where the tragedy and greatness of his work are rooted.
On the occasion of his first exhibition in the Kunstraum Munich in 1977 Tröger explained, that his aim was to make perceptible the sum of “visual experience”. Already in his paintings from the early 1960s, the pictorial spaces were oscillating, multi-layered arrangements. They are characterised by a drawing-like agility and sensitivity, a script-like style, without crossing the border into abstraction, as in the “Informalism” current of that time. In particular, the still lifes and flower pictures which have been created in his late eouvre, songs with predominantly dark, elegiac sounds, could only have been realised by an artist in the autumn of a fulfilled painter’s life. The lilacs, the peonies and hydrangeas, even the sunflowers, which are typically bright, exist on the brink of death. They no longer appear fresh, but are not yet completely withered. From this ambiguity, wonderful painting emerges which seems to hold time in limbo. We become aware of an utter immersion in the object, a sensitive surrendering, merging “subject” and “object” together.
Text by Michael Semff
Rudi Tröger. Malerei 1956–2018, Siegfried Gohr, Sieveking Verlag, 2019Vita
1929
Rudi Tröger is born in Marktleuthen, Oberfranken
(lives and works in Westerholzhausen near Munich)
1946—1949
Studies at the painter Wilhelm Beindorf in Marktleuthen
1949—1957
Studies at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich under Hans Gött and Erich Glette
1967—1992
Teaches at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich
1977
Elected as a full member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich
1993
Art prize of the City of Munich
Friedrich Baur prize for Fine Arts
2013
Kulturpreis Bayern für Malerei (cultural prize of the State of Bayern for painting)
2025
Rudi Tröger dies on December 2 in Westerholzhausen near Munich.
Selected Solo Shows
2023
Rudi Tröger – Ausblicke und Innenschau – Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren
Gesture and line. Four post-war German and Austrian artists (with Karl Bohrmann, Hermann Nitsch) – The British Museum, London
2021
Silent Encounter (with Julius Heinemann) – Jahn und Jahn, Munich
2016
Rudi Tröger. Bilder 1960 bis 2016 – Karl & Faber, Munich, in cooperation with Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich, curated by Dr. Michael Semff
2014
Rudi Tröger. Blumenbilder – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich
2013
Rudi Tröger. Werke 1960–2012 – an exhibition of the Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Dachau eG at Schloss Dachau (cat.)
2012
Rudi Tröger. Bildnisse 1960–2000 – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich
2010
Rudi Tröger. Bilder und Arbeiten auf Papier 1958–2008 – Schönewald Fine Arts, Düsseldorf (cat.)
Rudi Tröger – Galerie Maier, Innsbruck
2009
Heinz Butz und Rudi Tröger – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich, exhibiting as a guest at Galerie Lelong, Zurich (cat.)
2008—2009
Rudi Tröger. Zeichnen und Malen – Galerie Rolf Ohse, Bremen
2007
Rudi Tröger. Bilder und Arbeiten auf Papier – Galerie Josephski-Neukum, Issing am Ammersee
2006
Rudi Tröger. Gartenbilder – Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus and Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich (cat.)
Rudi Tröger. Bilder und Gouachen – Völcker & Freunde, Berlin
2004
Rudi Tröger. Pastelle – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (cat.)
2002
Rudi Tröger. Stilleben 1963–2002 – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (cat.)
1999
Rudi Tröger. Arbeiten auf Papier – Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich (cat.)
Rudi Tröger. Arbeiten auf Papier – Galerie Zell am See, Austria
Rudi Tröger. Wasserfarben 1995–1997 – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (cat.)
1997
Rudi Tröger. Bildnisse und Figuren 1963–1993 – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich
1996
Rudi Tröger. Bildnisse 1963–1993 – Nolan / Eckman Gallery, New York (cat.)
1995
Rudi Tröger und Katharina von Werz – Staatliche Akademie und Museum für angewandte Kunst, St. Petersburg, Russia (cat.)
1994
Rudi Tröger. Druckgraphik – Neue Galerie Dachau, Dachau
Rudi Tröger. Landschaftsbilder – Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, exhibition at the Galerie im Rathaus, and Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (cat.)
Rudi Tröger. Bildnisse – Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich
Rudi Tröger. Gemälde und Zeichnungen – Kunstpavillon Innsbruck
1993
Rudi Tröger. Badebilder – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (cat.)
Rudi Tröger. Figuren und Stilleben in der Landschaft. Bilder, Zeichnungen und Grafiken – Galerie Zell am See, Austria
1990
Rudi Tröger. Wasserfarben 1963–1967 – Galerie Jahn und Fusban, Munich (cat.)
1988
Rudi Tröger. Bilder 1959–1987 – Villa Stuck, Munich (cat.)
1987
Rudi Tröger. Zeichnungen 1957–1985 – Städtisches Museum Leverkusen, Schloss Morsbroich (cat.)
1985
Rudi Tröger. Druckgraphik 1965–1968 – Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (cat. with catalogue raisonné)
1983
Rudi Tröger. Bildnisse 1982–1983 – Galerie Tanit, Munich (cat.)
1977
Rudi Tröger. Bilder und Zeichnungen 1963–1976 – Kunstraum Munich (cat.)
Selected Group Shows
2023
Ungekämmte Bilder. Kunst ab 1960 aus der Sammlung Herzog Franz von Bayern – Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Gesture and line. Four post-war German and Austrian artists – The British Museum, London
