Galgenbild

When Fred Dahmen was appointed professor at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts in 1967, he settled in Chiemgau. In contrast to the pulsating industrial regions between Aachen and Cologne he was familiar with, here Dahmen encountered a rural, agricultural Bavaria. The charms of the cultural landscape with its gentle hills and fields had a lasting influence on the painter, initiating a significant change in his pictorial-abstract landscapes.

At the same time, Dahmen is confronted with the harsh day-to-day reality of country life characterized by arable and livestock farming. It was during this period that he created his series of »Gallows Pictures«, dedicated to the relationship between man and animal. This framed montage, composed of two light-colored areas of paint, is divided optically and vertically by a rope. Combined with coarse metal rings, it is vaguely reminiscent of a calving rope. In the unusual coupling of painting and everyday objects, Dahmen created art-landscapes which examine man and his relationship to his environment.