Claus Bertermann - LILIUMS XL

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.

From Architectural Abstraction to the Human Form

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. Today, he brings this same structural intensity to his figurative practice. His figurative works are not mere depictions but explorations of presence and transience, blending his architectural precision with a raw, Neo-Expressionist energy.

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 Catawiki offering presents a rare opportunity to acquire an original figurative work from an artist with a solidified international auction record.

Key details for collectors

– Title: LILIUMS XL
– Year: 2026
– Dimensions (H x W): 150 x 150 cm (59 × 59 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

"Liliums XL" takes on the single most over-painted flower in the history of art and treats it with cheerful disrespect. The lily—emblem of purity, funerals, annunciations and a thousand polite still lifes—is here stripped of all its ceremonial baggage and handed back its loudness. Bertermann's blossoms blaze in neon orange and acid yellow, throw their petals open like starfish, and lean out of a jungle-green thicket with the confidence of flowers that have absolutely no intention of behaving.

The trick of the painting is that the lilies are, in the end, a pretext. Bertermann is candid about this: the subject is not the flower but the act of painting it. The botanical fact is merely the permission slip that lets the hand move—the rolled-on color, the dragged drips, the white contour lines that refuse to stay inside any petal they were assigned to. What you are really watching is a record of decisions made fast and never taken back.

This is the more concentrated of two paintings made in the same burst—a tighter, square companion to the wide-format "Liliums XXL." Where the larger canvas opens into a panorama, this one crowds the bloom right up to the surface, so that a single enormous flower presides over the frame like a sun that has wandered down into the garden and decided to stay.

Why it is worth the price

This is a large-scale, museum-sized painting (150 x 150 cm) built through a deliberately physical process. The acrylic ground is rolled and brushed in broad, fast movements; the contours are then drawn directly in oil stick, sitting visibly on top of the color rather than dissolving into it. The result is a surface charged with momentum—pinks, oranges and electric greens held in tension by white and yellow lines that vibrate against them.

Bertermann's figurative paintings are defined by this duality: raw construction paired with a confident, immediate line. "Liliums XL" is a fully resolved example of the approach at a perfectly balanced square format—monumental enough to anchor a wall, intimate enough to read as a single breath of color.

The piece reflects Bertermann's ongoing interest in the painted gesture as the true subject of the work, making it both visually exuberant and conceptually grounded for collectors.

Visual description & condition

The composition is dominated by large stylized lily blossoms in luminous orange and apricot, their petals outlined in white, yellow and hot pink oil stick. A single commanding flower opens at the upper center, its star-shaped petals spreading across a thicket of vivid green foliage and a deep blue ground; below, further blooms cluster against a lavender-pink mid-zone, with small orange bud-clusters and dark, drawn stems rising from an olive-green lower register. Long blue and violet drip-lines run downward through the flowers like rain on glass. The petals are deliberately simplified and flattened, prioritizing rhythm and color energy over botanical accuracy.

The acrylic surface remains open and visibly worked, showing the marks of the roller and wide brush. The oil-stick lines sit clearly on top, keeping their independence from the painted ground. The work is signed "Bertermann" in blue 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 and the act of painting rather than faithful representation. In this body of work the chosen motif—here, lilies—functions only as an occasion for paint to move. By separating painterly gesture (acrylic rolled and brushed) from drawing (oil-stick contours), he stages a dialogue between body and surface, control and release.

"Liliums XL" is one of two paintings created as a pair on this subject, alongside the larger panoramic "Liliums XXL." Together they let the same garden breathe at two different scales, and make plain the artist's central claim: it was never about the lilies.

Practical details for buyers:

Original, one-of-a-kind artwork
Acrylic and oil stick on canvas
Dimensions (H x W): 150 x 150 cm (59 × 59 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.