Claus Bertermann (1965) - Windspiel

Artist: Claus Bertermann

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: www.bertermann.art

Claus Bertermann is an internationally established contemporary artist whose market profile is backed by international market authority and exceptional secondary market results. Known for his powerful, large-format abstract works, Bertermann has consistently commanded high-tier prices at the world's most prestigious auction houses. His top realized prices include €18,900 at C. h. r. i. s. t. i. e´s Paris (Retro Zen), €15,240 at S. o. t. h. e. b. y´s Cologne (F5TP#CB), and €15,120 at C. h. r. i. s. t. i. e´s Paris (Whispershade). With additional successful sales at V. a. n. H. a. m, A. r. t. c. u. r. i. a. l, T. a. j. a. n, and D. o. r. o. t. h. e. u. m, Bertermann's work is a proven asset for serious collectors worldwide.

The New Expressionist Series Continues

With a Master's degree in Architecture (TU Munich), Bertermann originally gained global recognition for his "architectural strata" technique—layering and scraping oil paint to build spatial depth. In 2026 he opened a radically new chapter: figurative scenes in heightened, emotionally charged colour, guided by the painters of German Expressionism — a ground set down in coarse brushstrokes, with the drawn oil-stick line laid on top of it afterwards and never worked into it. "Windspiel" belongs to that series and plays a quiet game with its viewer: the painting is named after something most people do not see at first.

International Artistic Footprint

With more than 1,000 large format works in private and institutional collections across the globe—including a monumental triptych at his alma mater, the Technical University of Munich—Bertermann continues to bridge the gap between rigorous structure and intuitive freedom. This offering presents a rare opportunity to acquire a key work from an exciting new series by an artist with a solidified international auction record.

Key details for collectors

– Title: Windspiel
– Year: 2026
– Dimensions (H x W): 150 x 200 cm (59 × 79 inches)
– Medium: Acrylic and oil stick on canvas
– Signed by the artist on the front and back side
– Original, one-of-a-kind artwork - MADE BY A REAL PERSON, NOT AI.
– Ships rolled without frame

What makes this piece unique

In German, a "Windspiel" is a small greyhound—the Italian greyhound, the slender dog of palaces and court portraits, bred for speed and kept for elegance.

So the title makes a simple promise: there is a dog in this picture.

Now look for it.

What you see first is a woman. She sits enthroned in a lime-green armchair, wrapped in a vermilion coat that fills the centre of the canvas, her dark hair swept sideways, her blue eyes fixed on you with perfect composure. Around her the picture is all movement: yellow running down the canvas in long streaks, pink and red ribbons hanging beside the chair, blue lines looping through the lower left like a gust of wind. Anyone who does not speak German hears the wind in the title and finds it everywhere. It feels like the painting has kept its promise.

It has not. Not yet.

Most people need a second look, some a third. Then, low in front of the red coat, a head appears: orange, with a long narrow muzzle, two dark eyes and blue ears folded back. The Windspiel has been sitting there the whole time, upright and patient, looking straight out of the picture—at you, while you were looking at everyone else.

And here is the twist. The greyhound is a sighthound. For thousands of years it has been bred to do one thing better than any other dog: to see first. In this painting it is the one that is seen last.

A painting named after its least visible figure is a small act of loyalty. The woman takes the room; the title goes to the dog. Once you have found him, you cannot stop finding him—and every time the picture is shown to someone new, the game begins again.

For collectors who like a footnote: Frederick the Great loved his Windspiele so much that he asked to be buried beside them on the terrace of Sanssouci. It took more than two hundred years, but in 1991 his wish was granted.

Why it is worth the price

This is a large-scale, museum-sized painting (150 x 200 cm) in landscape format from Bertermann's 2026 expressionist series. For collectors, works from the opening year of a new series carry a meaningful provenance marker, and within this series "Windspiel" holds a distinctive position: it is a picture puzzle — a double portrait of a woman and her dog in which the title names the figure the eye finds last. A classic theme of European portraiture, from court painting to the salon, translated into the loud, fluid colour of German Expressionism, and turned into a game of looking that renews itself with every new viewer.

It is also one of the most luminous canvases of the series. The dominant yellow ground, the vermilion coat and the lime-green chair give the work an intense daylight presence that holds a large wall on its own.

Technically the canvas is built in two separated moves, which is the method behind Bertermann's figurative work. First the ground: the yellow and cream field, the vermilion coat, the lime-green chair back and the violet, turquoise and green masses in the lower half are laid in with coarse, broad brushstrokes that keep the movement of the arm visible and settle nothing precisely. Only then the drawing: the oil stick goes over that painted field and sets the contours — the woman's face, eyes and dark hair, the looping blue lines of the armchair, the ribbons, and the head of the greyhound with its narrow muzzle, dark eyes and folded ears. The drawn line does not follow the painted ground beneath it; it lies on top of it and keeps its own authority. Freedom below, precision above—an architect's instinct for structure carrying an expressionist's appetite for colour.

Visual description & condition

The composition shows a woman seated frontally in a large armchair at the centre of the canvas. She has dark blue-black hair swept to the side, a light face with pink cheeks, blue eyes, dark brows and red lips, and she wears a wide vermilion and orange coat that fills most of the centre of the picture. Behind her the back of the chair is painted in lime green, its arms drawn in broad, looping blue and green oil-stick lines that sweep down to the lower left and right.

In front of the coat, at the left of centre, sits a slender greyhound seen from the front: an orange head with a long, narrow muzzle, two dark eyes and blue ears folded back, drawn over green and blue passages. To its left a round form in ochre, teal and blue marks the end of the armrest; at the right a second rounded mass in green and turquoise. The lower centre is filled with violet, lilac and green brushwork.

The background is a bright yellow and cream field running in long vertical streaks, with pale turquoise at the upper edge. At the upper right, pink, red and violet ribbons hang down beside the chair; a long pink stroke crosses the top of the canvas. Blue and green oil-stick lines loop through the yellow ground at the lower left.

Colours visibly run and merge throughout; perspective and anatomy are intentionally distorted to prioritise emotional weight over realism. The work is signed in green oil stick at the lower right.

The work is unframed and not stretched. Condition is excellent. All surface irregularities are intentional and integral to the artist's process.

Background / artistic context

Claus Bertermann works within contemporary expressive figurative painting, focusing on states of being rather than mere representation. With his 2026 series he placed the human figure inside charged colour situations, drawing directly on the legacy of German Expressionism: bent perspective, heightened colour, a surface kept deliberately fluid, and a drawn line that stays visibly on top of it.

The woman with her dog is one of the oldest pairings in portrait painting. For centuries the animal at the sitter's side was a supporting character, placed at the edge to say something about the sitter: loyalty, rank, tenderness. The greyhound in particular was the dog of the court — fast, fragile, decorative and utterly devoted.

"Windspiel" keeps that arrangement and reverses the billing. The sitter gets the space, the colour and the gaze; the dog gets the title. It is a painting about how we look — about what we notice first, what we overlook, and the quiet figure who was there all along, waiting to be seen.

Practical details for buyers:

Original, one-of-a-kind artwork
Acrylic and oil stick on canvas
Dimensions (H x W): 150 x 200 cm (59 × 79 inches)
Signed by the artist on the front and back side
Certificate of authenticity included
Shipped rolled (not framed or stretched)
Professional packaging and worldwide shipping with premium shipping companies like UPS.

The canvas includes an additional continuous white border of approximately 10 cm (approx. 4 inches) on all sides beyond the painted surface. This margin allows the artwork to be professionally restretched on museum-quality stretcher bars up to 6 cm (approx. 2.4 inches) in depth, resulting in a clean, frameless, gallery-style presentation without the need for a decorative frame.

Please note that the artwork is sold unframed and without stretcher bars. Professional stretching is the responsibility of the buyer. The painting is shipped rolled for safe international transport and flexible installation according to the buyer's preference.

The artwork is signed on both front and reverse, with title, year, and the artist's full name inscribed on the back.

Please note regarding the room views:

Some of the photographs show the painting digitally placed in an interior. These room views are AI-visualisations, created to give an impression of scale and presence only — they are not photographs of the actual work hanging in a room. Both the size proportions and the colours shown in them may differ from the original. The binding references are the dimensions stated above (H x W) and the studio photograph of the painting itself. Please also note that colours may appear differently depending on screen calibration.