Reiner Schwarz (*1940), Little Mouse, 1968

Reiner Schwarz (*1940 Hirschberg), Little mouse, 1968. Lithograph, 30 cm x 21 (sheet size), signed “R.[einer] Schwarz” in pencil lower right, dated “[19]68”, identified as copy no. 18 / 80 lower right and inscribed “Mäuschen” in the center.
- in excellent condition  



- Hypertrophic filigree -


A monstrous neck emerges from a slender female torso, on which a head almost the size of the picture sits. However, the female creature, which has grown into a mighty figure, has a filigree face with a pointed nose. A straight line runs from the high, receding forehead to the tip of the nose, giving the face a "mouse face" appearance. The creature, which at first glance appears ugly, has a peculiar beauty, enhanced by the red, which culminates in the mouse-like face. The eyes are closed, as if the female figure in the dream is actually experiencing reality.



About the artist

After being expelled from Hirschberg in Silesia, Reiner Schwarz spent his youth in Hannover. In 1960 he began studying at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Mac Zimmermann and produced his first lithographs. In 1962 he made study trips to Florence and Venice, and in 1965 to Rome. He was particularly fascinated by Italian art, Sienese painting, and Mannerism. His first solo exhibition at the Galerie Schnoor in Bremen in 1964 was the beginning of more than 150 exhibitions in Germany and abroad. In 1974 Reiner Schwarz established a print studio in Berlin, where he perfected the technique of lithography, using up to 17 colors on various tone papers. In 1987, his artistic encounter with Rolf Münzer and Peter Schnürpel at the Kätelhön print studio inspired him to explore the world of "abandoned and lonely" everyday objects as melancholy traces of memory instead of people. Initially, he used large-format wrapping paper from the GDR. In 1990 Schwarz became a member of the Künstlersonderbund in Germany. Galerie Brusberg, which represented the artist for more than 20 years, published a catalogue raisonné of Reiner Schwarz's lithographs in 1984.  


"He does not want to be just a draughtsman, but an interpreter, a reinterpreter, a metaphorist who creates mutants and thus visualizes the invisible, the known and the seemingly banal that is about to be transformed into eternity; the brief moment of an all too fleeting present, nature next to nature, reality next to reality. It is therefore a subversive realism that questions our everyday thinking, that refuses to grasp things quickly by means of exaggerated precision, that thwarts cognition, denatures the world and melts it into a pictorial puzzle [...]".

Edwin Kratschmer