Lot Essay
‘For all its delight in fantasy and for all its penchant for things transcendent, Burgert’s world consists of reality. These are the realities of various cultures, shamans, for instance, who have wandered out of anthropological documentation across into Burgert’s pictures, or enigmatic headgear, which derives from temples and tribal cults. The arsenal of baroque cabinets of curiosities amalgamated with the cult of oceanic tribes, elements of variety shows and the circus, religion and ritual – nothing that couldn’t really be like that – and that would not reflect human existence in its search for meaning and transcendence. Burgert’s paintings reflect the realities of various cults and cultures in a new reality, which the artist himself creates and which marks his paintings – and made them unmistakable’ (C. Heinrich, ‘Jonas Burgert: The Magic of Reality’, https://www.jonasburgert.de/?option=com_content&view=article&id=8&Itemid=1 [accessed 29 August 2014]).