Max Renneisen is a German painter based in Berlin. It is vital to his paintings and drawings to build on the legacy of the Old Masters and to explore the painterly possibilities of the imitation of nature in the light of modern imagery. Working in a range of media and formats, from small drawings on paper to large-scale oil paintings on canvas, Max Renneisen is particularly concerned with general issues such as human relationship with nature and the relationship between ideal and reality.
Renneisen’s Menagerie is an ongoing body of works of animal paintings. Inspired by the works of Frans Snyders, François Desportes and Jean-Baptiste Oudry and aware of the pictorial possibilities of modern media, his paintings form a new approach to the tradition of animals in painting. Carefully observed and constructed, the animals are placed in invented settings in the manner of Baroque portraits, thus presenting them as individual, conscious beings and as ideal representatives of a species at the same time.
Max Renneisen’s occupation with the natural world eventually led him to explore the role of mankind in it. Paradise Lost is a continuing group of paintings and drawings, which renews the classical subject of the nude in nature. While the figures derive from modern photographic material found primarily in magazines, the surrounding landscapes are mere constructions inspired by Old Masters paintings. Renneisen’s distant, objectifying and often ironic view raises questions about the relationship between human culture and nature.
Max Renneisen was born in Hamburg in 1977. He first studied Architecture at Bauhaus-University, Weimar, before he changed to History of Art at Humboldt-University of Berlin and concluded his studies with a Master’s degree. Numerous journeys took him to the most important museums and galleries in Europe, where he studied the works of Guido Reni, Diego Velázquez, Peter Paul Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera and Frans Hals as well as Joshua Reynolds and Gustave Courbet. He shares his passion for 19th-century photography with his partner, visual artist Katharina Renneisen.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Solo and Duo Exhibitions
2023 Every Wave Is New (with K. Renneisen), Framed, Berlin
2023 Menagerie, Wurlitzer Pied à Terre Collection, Berlin
2022 A Place for Bambi (with K. Renneisen), Bark Berlin Gallery, Berlin
2019 Strangers in Paradise, Wurlitzer Pied à Terre Collection, Berlin
2017 Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet! (with K. Renneisen), Le Manoir, Mouthier Haute-Pierre
2016 In Search of Paradise Lost, Volume, Berlin
Group Exhibitions
2022 I beg your pardon…, Wurlitzer Pied à Terre Collection, Berlin
2020 Diamonds, König Galerie, Berlin
2020 Messe in St. Agnes II, König Galerie, Berlin
2020 Drawing Wow II, Kunstsaele, Berlin
2018 The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
2018 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2017 Art on a Postcard, Unit London, London
2016 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
PUBLICATION
Paradise Lost, Gargantua Editions, 2022, ISBN 978-3-00-072679-8
LINKS