Interieur und Exterieur 1983

Siegfried Zademack made this odd interior-exterior, “Interieur und Exterieur”, sometime in the late 20th or early 21st century, with oil on canvas. The composition is striking, almost theatrical, where color has a symbolic, or maybe emotional charge. Red and green figures, like actors in a play, face off over a chessboard which has a rifle and a baguette resting across the middle. It's got a surreal air to it, a dreamlike quality like Magritte, but the treatment of paint feels very different. Look at that olive green, those strokes are visible and add texture and movement. I love how those colours sit next to each other on the canvas, like a conversation between different states of mind. The more you look, the more it refuses to settle down. It's a bit like a visual puzzle, daring us to find a solution.