Claus Bertermann (1965) - Gambit

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. "Gambit" belongs to that series and takes it to a chessboard: one young man, one table, and a game that is not quite the one it appears to be.

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 a key work from an exciting new series by an artist with a solidified international auction record.

Key details for collectors

– Title: Gambit
– Year: 2026
– Dimensions (H x W): 200 x 150 cm (79 × 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

A gambit is the oldest trick in chess. You offer your opponent a piece for free. It looks like a mistake, it is meant to look like a mistake, and the whole point is that the other player cannot resist taking it. By the time they understand what they have paid for it, the game has already turned.

The young man in "Gambit" is sitting at the board with his cheek propped on his hand, in the classic posture of someone deep in calculation. Except that he is not looking at the board.

He is looking at you.

Check the pieces. The ones on the table stand in the foreground, large, close to the edge of the canvas—on your side of the board. His side is an empty field of orange. Whatever he had, he has already given away. The move has been made, the offer is on the table, and he is simply waiting, very calmly, with an expression that is patient in the way only people who already know the next five moves can afford to be patient.

That is the twist. The game in this painting is not on the chessboard. It is the stare.

A portrait that looks directly out of the canvas is, in itself, a gambit: it offers the viewer something that seems free—a face, an open gaze, an easy moment of contact—and the viewer takes it without thinking. You have been holding his eyes for a while now. You accepted the offer the second you started looking.

Your move.

Why it is worth the price

This is a large-scale, museum-sized painting (200 x 150 cm) in portrait 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 "Gambit" holds a distinct position: a single figure confronting the viewer head-on, with a still life of chess pieces pushed right up to the lower edge, so that the picture plane itself becomes the edge of the board.

Scale is doing real work here. At two metres high, the face sits close to the eye level of a standing viewer and the pieces in the foreground are larger than life. The painting does not show a chess game from the outside; it seats the viewer at the table, on the side that has to move next.

Technically the canvas is built in two separated moves, which is the method behind Bertermann's figurative work. First the ground: the near-black and deep blue background, the turquoise and pale yellow face, the lilac shirt and the orange table 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 cobalt line of the brows, eyes, nose and mouth, the scribbled red-orange jacket and propped arm, the loose blue lattice across the chest and table, the white and yellow rims of the chess pieces. 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 young man seated behind a table, half length, frontal and centred, looking directly out at the viewer. His face is painted in turquoise, mint green and pale yellow, with brows, eyes, nose, mouth and a light beard drawn in strong cobalt and ultramarine oil stick. His dark hair dissolves at the top into a smoky mass of pale blue oil stick. His right hand is raised to his cheek, the chin resting on it; the arm and hand are drawn in a dense scribble of red, orange and vermilion. He wears an open lilac and violet shirt beneath a loosely drawn red-orange jacket, both crossed by blue oil-stick lines.

In front of him lies a table top in orange and vermilion, crossed by blue and dark red lines. Along the lower edge of the canvas stand chess pieces: at the left a dark blue-green piece with a pink and lilac crown, at the centre a tall pale green piece with a ringed collar and a flat top, drawn in white and yellow line, and at the right a dark navy piece with a rounded head. A further pale yellow form appears at the lower left.

The background is a deep near-black and navy field worked with light blue, turquoise and white brushstrokes and fine yellow lines at the upper left. A soft yellow and ochre smear crosses the right edge at the level of the table. Colours visibly run and merge throughout; perspective and anatomy are intentionally distorted to prioritise emotional weight over realism. The work is signed in yellow 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 chess player has been a favourite of painters for centuries precisely because he is so easy to paint as a thinker: the lowered head, the hand at the temple, the eyes fixed on the board. The game lets a picture show concentration without having to explain it, and the viewer is always a spectator, looking over someone's shoulder at a contest between two other people.

"Gambit" keeps the pose and turns the head. The player has stopped looking at the board and started looking out of the painting, and in that single change the spectator is gone. There is no opponent in the picture because the opponent is standing in front of it. It is a portrait about the moment a game stops being about the pieces and starts being about the person across the table.

Practical details for buyers:

Original, one-of-a-kind artwork
Acrylic and oil stick on canvas
Dimensions (H x W): 200 x 150 cm (79 × 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.

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.