Kippi (Kippenberger) 1978

Rainer Fetting made 'Kippi' using expressive brushstrokes and a muted palette. It’s all about the process, the energy of applying paint to canvas. The texture in this painting is something else. Fetting uses thick paint, almost sculptural in places. The gray tones build up, creating a surface that feels raw and immediate. Look at the area around the mouth, those smears of red and white. They’re not precise, but they capture something essential, a kind of vulnerability. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the canvas, making decisions on the fly. Fetting's work reminds me a little of early Georg Baselitz, who also explored portraiture through abstraction. Both artists show us that painting is about more than just representation, it's about capturing a feeling.