GROUP SHOW WITH SVEN DRÜHL
DEM HIMMEL SO NAH. WOLKEN IN DER KUNST.

ANGERMUSEUM ERFURT, ERFURT, GERMANY
23 MARCH – 26 JULY 2026

The significance of cloud depictions in the visual arts ranges from the religious symbolism of the Middle Ages to the sublime, atmospheric landscapes of Romanticism, and the scientifically influenced perspectives of Realism. In the era of climate change, clouds are directly linked to human-induced environmental destruction and take on a political dimension. This, too, has long been a subject of art, as works in this exhibition demonstrate. Contemporary art also offers a poetic and sensory approach.

The exhibition "So Close to the Sky. Clouds in Art" („Dem Himmel so nah. Wolken in der Kunst“) is a collaboration with the Kunsthalle Emden and the Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen. Alongside a core collection of artworks displayed at all three venues, there are also pieces shown exclusively at the respective locations. Consequently, the Erfurt exhibition includes artworks from its own collection, featuring pieces by Jacob Samuel Beck, Johann Erdmann Hummel, Margaretha Reichardt, and Winifred Zielonka, among others. Furthermore, the Angermuseum was able to secure a loan from a private collection—exhibited here for the very first time—of small oil sketches by prominent 19th-century plein air painters, which vividly illustrate the artistic discovery of the sky and its infinitely diverse atmospheres.

Sven Drühl, S.D.N.N. (Volcano), 2016, 200 x 155 cm © Sammlung Kunsthalle Emden

Bringing together works spanning over 500 years, the exhibition features 47 international artists—from Albrecht Dürer, Andreas Achenbach, and Erich Heckel to Gerhard Richter and Yoko Ono. Through their art, they all make one thing clear: our relationship with the sky and all its phenomena is always one of deep emotional and existential significance.

FEATURED ARTIST

SVEN DRÜHL
Sven Drühl (b. 1968 in Nassau, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. He studied Fine Arts and mathematics at the University of Essen and completed a doctorate in art science at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

By drawing on the artistic achievements of modernism and postmodernism, Drühl sees the opportunity to develop a new style, a new "metamodern" visual language. In his mostly serial paintings and sculptures, he always works conceptually, creating something innovative by reconstructing and evaluating what already exists. In doing so, he addresses a variety of topics, such as the transfer of cultural and media values, originality,...
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