Review

You don't have to think of Plato's Allegory of the Cave right away. But something is different in the rooms of Galerie Schlichtenmaier on Kleiner Schossplatz in Stuttgart. The painter Anna Bittersohl has lent a hand to change the ambience very impressively before her exhibition "tiny are the walls and flat is the roof" opens next Thursday at 7 pm. In order to delimit her art in a more natural way, she has built two cave systems in the exhibition space and will also provide a floral extension of her concept of art, artificial wind is also provided. Bittersohl's art is embedded in and around this fictitious mountain and forest experience and, to a certain extent, outsourced - because, of course, it can't be done entirely without the gallery walls. To start with Plato: it may not be a matter of controlled knowledge, but of an expansion of consciousness. For this is precisely what she also offers in her paintings and works on paper: The figuration is even further dematerialized than it has been before; its traces, however, are indeed still sensually perceptible. The color palette, on the other hand, is additionally flanked by varying image carriers and collages, which assign further levels to the already multilayered painting, even beyond the format. The exceptional artist, who studied with Ralph Fleck, shows the painting of her generation and herself new ways. Her new painterly works can be seen until January 7, 2023.