Rainer Fetting German, b. 1949
Rainer Fetting (b. 1949, Wilhelmshaven, Germany) is recognised as one of the leading figures of the Neue Wilde ("New Wild") movement, which emerged in Germany during the late 1970s and early 1980s as a forceful return to expressive, figurative painting. Rejecting the prevailing dominance of conceptual and minimalist practices, Fetting and his contemporaries sought to reassert the emotional and material power of paint through a vigorous, gestural approach to image-making.
Fetting studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin between 1972 and 1978 under Professor Hans Jaenisch. It was during this formative period that he developed the expressive visual language that would come to define his practice: a dynamic synthesis of figuration, colour, and painterly gesture. His work emerged from a dialogue with both German Expressionism and the post-war American avant-garde, drawing particular inspiration from the gestural freedom of Willem de Kooning, the physicality of Jackson Pollock's painting, and the emotional resonance of colour found within the work of artists such as Mark Rothko.
Throughout his career, Fetting has remained committed to the expressive possibilities of figurative painting. His works are characterised by energetic brushwork, heightened colour, and an immediacy of execution that privileges sensation and experience over naturalistic representation. Whether depicting portraits, urban scenes, landscapes, or still lifes, Fetting's paintings seek not to reproduce the visible world but to communicate its psychological and emotional intensity.
The cities of Berlin and New York proved particularly influential to the development of his practice during the 1980s and early 1990s. Dividing his time between these two cultural centres, Fetting produced some of his most celebrated works, capturing their energy, architecture, and social life through his distinctive painterly language. Following the closure of his New York studio in the mid-1990s, he increasingly turned his attention to the landscapes of northern Germany, particularly the island of Sylt, whose dramatic coastline and changing light continue to provide a rich source of inspiration.
Fetting's international reputation was firmly established with his inclusion in the landmark exhibition A New Spirit in Painting at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 1981, curated by Norman Rosenthal and Christos M. Joachimides. This influential exhibition positioned him among a generation of artists responsible for the resurgence of figurative painting internationally. The following year, he participated in Zeitgeist at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, another defining exhibition of contemporary European art.
More recently, Fetting's work has been the subject of major institutional exhibitions, including Rainer Fetting ziet van Gogh at the Van GoghHuis, Zundert (2022), Rainer Fetting at the Museum Ostwall, Dortmund (2021), and Rainer Fetting: Here Are the Lemons at Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (2020). Beyond painting, Fetting has also produced significant sculptural works, perhaps most notably his monumental bronze portrait of Willy Brandt, commissioned for the headquarters of Germany's Social Democratic Party in the mid-1990s.
Today, Rainer Fetting is recognised as one of the most important painters of post-war Germany. His work is held in major public and private collections worldwide, including the Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; and the Würth Collection, Künzelsau. Through his sustained commitment to colour, gesture, and figuration, Fetting continues to demonstrate the enduring vitality and expressive potential of painting.
