Claus Bertermann (1965) - Trace

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. "Trace" belongs to that series and turns it towards stillness: a young woman at a chess table, a chess clock at her side, and her hand suspended above pieces that seem to be made of glass.

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: Trace
– 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

Chess is the only game with a perfect memory. A match played in London in 1851—the one chess players still call the Immortal Game—can be replayed tonight, move for move, exactly as it happened. Every decision survives.

Everything else is lost. Nobody wrote down how long the players' hands hovered before they touched a piece, what they were thinking, whether they were afraid. The notation keeps the moves and forgets the people.

This painting does the opposite.

Look at the board. The pieces are barely there: grey and white outlines on dark green, transparent as breath on a cold window, as if they were already turning into notation. The only things painted with full weight are the woman herself, the flowers in her hair—and the clock.

And here is the twist. This is not really a painting about chess. It is one of the oldest subjects in European painting, in disguise.

For centuries, painters set the same few objects on a table to say one single thing: everything passes. A timepiece, because hours run out. Fresh flowers, because they will have wilted by next week. Glass, because it breaks. These pictures are called vanitas. Now count what is on the table in "Trace": a clock, flowers, and an entire army made of glass. All three attributes are there. The chess game is the costume.

Only the skull is missing, the one object that tells the viewer who wins in the end. Late-medieval painters knew the answer and painted it without hesitation: a man at a chessboard, and across from him, Death. In "Trace" there is no opponent at all. The only other presence at the table is the clock.

A chess clock is a strange instrument. It has two faces, and only one of them ever runs: the one belonging to the player who has to decide. Press the button and your own time stops while someone else's begins. It is the only clock ever built that does not measure how long you live—only how long you hesitate.

Her hand is exactly there. Open, pale, suspended above the glass pieces, not yet touching. Under the rules of chess, a piece that is touched must be moved. As long as the hand hovers, every possibility is still alive. It is the most fleeting moment in any game, and perhaps in any life—and it is the one moment no notation ever records.

The painting keeps it. Her eyes are lowered, almost closed; she does not look like someone calculating, she looks like someone listening. The flowers stay fresh, the glass stays whole, and a painted clock can run for ever without her time ever running out.

Which is where the title comes in. A trace is what remains after something has passed: not the result, only the mark of a hand. We will never know whether she won. We only know that she was here, and that she hesitated beautifully.

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 "Trace" is a painting with two layers: a contemporary figure in charged expressionist colour on the surface, and beneath it one of the great old-master genres, the vanitas still life, carried into the present without a single skull or candle.

It is also the natural counterpart to "Gambit" from the same series—the same format, the same table, the same game. In "Gambit" a young man looks up from the board and straight at the viewer; in "Trace" a young woman looks down and inwards and does not notice us at all. One painting is about the opponent, the other about time. Hung side by side, the two canvases complete each other; on its own, "Trace" holds a wall with a quiet, almost devotional presence.

Technically the canvas is built in two separated moves, which is the method behind Bertermann's figurative work. First the ground: the deep blue night, the mint-green table, the dark green board and the orange, ochre and green masses of her robe 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 lowered eyes, brows and mouth in dark blue, the black strands of her gathered hair, the white outline of the hovering hand, the translucent chess pieces, the two dials of the chess clock and the faint lines of the board. The drawn line does not follow the painted ground beneath it; it lies on top of it and keeps its own authority. And it obeys the same rule the woman is still hesitating over: once an oil-stick line has touched the canvas, it counts. Nothing is scraped back. 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 woman seated behind a chess table, seen from above the waist, her head bowed towards the board. Her face is painted in pale blue and white, with the lowered eyes, brows, nose and mouth drawn in fine dark blue oil stick. Her dark hair is gathered up on top of her head in loose black oil-stick strands, set with yellow, orange and red flowers. She wears a wrapped robe with a V-neck, painted in vermilion, orange, ochre and yellow with green and blue passages and crossed by black oil-stick lines; at the left the sleeve dissolves into flaring strokes of orange and red.

Her right hand, pale blue and outlined in white oil stick, hangs open above the board, the fingers pointing down towards the pieces. The board is a dark green and near-black field crossed by faint orange and blue grid lines. On it stand chess pieces painted as translucent grey and white forms with white oil-stick contours and small orange and red accents. At the right edge of the table stands a blue chess clock with two round white dials, red hands and yellow rims, outlined in black oil stick.

The table top is a band of mint green and turquoise brushwork running across the canvas; the background is a deep navy and ultramarine field, brightening to cobalt and turquoise at the upper edge. 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.

Two old traditions meet in this canvas. The vanitas still life arranged clocks, flowers and glass on a table as a quiet reminder of how short everything is. The chess player, on the other hand, became one of painting's favourite images of the mind at work—and in the late Middle Ages, of the one game no one can win.

"Trace" lets both meet at the same table and removes what made them loud: no skull, no Death, no visible opponent. What remains is a woman, a hand that has not yet decided, and a clock that only runs while she thinks. It is not a painting about losing time. It is a painting about the fact that the moment before a decision is the most alive moment there is—and that it is always the first thing to disappear.

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.