EBERHARD HAVEKOST: Benutzeroberflächen. Arbeiten von 1994-2019

Eberhard Havekost (1967–2019), the “painter and thinker,” was considered one of the great hopes of German contemporary art and, since the beginning of the 21st century, had been the focus of international attention from public museums and renowned private collections through exhibitions and acquisitions. His visual language uniquely combined the precise depiction of the visible world with the conditions of perception itself, particularly with the digital “user interfaces” of smartphones, tablets, and image-editing programs. As a result, his works always appear cool and thoroughly contemporary, yet at the same time possess a visual enigmatic quality: through cropping, selective focus, and deliberate “blow-up effects,” they subvert hasty expectations and at times seem like painterly deep-drillings behind the facades of digital modernity.

Eberhard Havekost, Kabinen, 1997, Öl auf Leinwand

Trained in the mid-1990s at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, living in Berlin and traveling extensively, and finally teaching as a professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 2010 until his untimely death, Havekost masterfully blended Eastern and Western influences. The retrospective at the Museum Kurhaus Kleve is the first major posthumous museum exhibition dedicated to this innovative visual artist; it aims to introduce local audiences to his oeuvre through significant series of works and to highlight his standing in recent art history through exhibitions, publications, and a series of talks. 

THE EXHIBITION RUNS FROM JUNE 14 TO OCTOBER 18, 2026.

Museum Kurhaus Kleve – Ewald Mataré Collection
Tiergartenstraße 41
D-47533 Kleve

More information: Museum Kurhaus Kleve