From Darkness to Light — Paintings, Memory and the White Cube in Tbilisi
Eleven new Caucasus paintings at Vernissage Gallery Tbilisi, on the occasion of the publication of the catalog In the Prison of Art — 137 paintings from 30 years in Georgia.
Category Writings
From Darkness to Light – Hans Heiner Buhr | Vernissage Gallery Tbilisi
Hans Heiner Buhr opens From Darkness to Light at Vernissage Gallery Tbilisi on 3 June 2026 — new paintings tracing thirty years between East Berlin and the Caucasus, alongside the first presentation of his catalogue In the Prison of Art.
Aprilgedicht — Eine Skizze von 1989
Eine frühe Zeichnung aus Smolensk von 1988, verbunden mit dem Aprilgedicht vom 20.4.1989 — eine Erinnerung an Aufbruch, Sehnsucht, Wut und die fragile Bildsprache der späten 1980er Jahre.
Meir Reappears
A rediscovered painting opens a door back to Dresden in 1990: Hans Heiner Buhr tells the story of Meir, a portrait of Meir Mendelssohn, created as part of a triptych that helped finance his painting studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
Meir taucht wieder auf
Ein wiederentdecktes Gemälde öffnet eine Tür in die Dresdner Nachwendezeit: 1990 malte Hans Heiner Buhr das Porträt Meir als Teil eines Triptychons, um sein Studium an der Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam zu finanzieren. 36 Jahre später taucht das Bild unerwartet auf einer Auktion wieder auf.
Otar Chkhartishvili at the Dry Bridge Art Market, Tbilisi, 1998
Rare archive photographs from Tbilisi in 1998: Georgian artist Otar Chkhartishvili (1938 - 2006) and friends at the Dry Bridge art market — a small document of Georgia’s post-Soviet art world, full of improvisation, friendship and belief.
Germania (1995): Love, Promise and Reckoning in 1990s Germany
“Germania” (1995) is both a personal and social painting by Heiner Buhr about love, promise, consumerism and the hopes of reunited Germany in the 1990s.
Germania (1995): Liebe, Verheißung und Abrechnung in den 1990er Jahren
„Germania“ (1995) verbindet eine persönliche Liebesgeschichte mit einer Allegorie auf das wiedervereinigte Deutschland der 1990er Jahre.
Kontrabanda
„Kontrabanda“ ist ein Gemälde über Handel, Erinnerung und Zeit im Kaukasus – entstanden aus einer Begegnung im Schnee im Jahr 1997 und entwickelt über 29 Jahre hinweg.
კონტრაბანდა
ჩვენ მას თოვლში შევხვდით — სადღაც საქართველოსა და ინგუშეთს შორის. 1990-იანი წლების შუა პერიოდში, ომებისა და სამოქალაქო არეულობის შემდეგ, კავკასიის ბევრ მაღალმთიან სოფელში ხალხი თითქმის მხოლოდ იმით ცხოვრობდა, რისიც თავად წარმოება შეეძლო: ძროხები, ცხვრები, ყველი, კარაქი, ბალახები, შინაური არაყი, თამბაქო.…