Portraits & Figurative
Figurative painting and portraits are recurring themes in his work. The focus is on portraits of women. They are often integrated into large work cycles, such as in the 90s into the topic of “witches” – to be understood as a warning against hatred of everything foreign. Later, the “Well Women” cycle crystallized out of an examination of the Indian caste system.
“Often peculiarly close-up and without distance, emphatically haunting,” is how art historian Dr. Hans M. Schmidt describes Torsten Schlüter’s portraits.
Hiddensee
It is his “open-air studio” – the island of Hiddensee and a place of intensive study of nature through drawing. With the wet-on-wet technique he developed, he created an unmistakable style in watercolor painting.
In 2004 Torsten Schlüter was awarded the South German Watercolor Art Prize.
India
Torsten Schlüter has been traveling to India since 1993. The artist often works up the sketches he brings with him in his Berlin studio on large-format canvases.
The Indian subcontinent plays a major role in Torsten Schlüter’s work. More under work theme INDIA
Metropolitan areas
“Schlüter captures urban life on canvas in acrylic and oil paintings with gripping expressiveness. One is reminded of German Expressionist painting. The power of the colors, the pulsating brushstrokes, all this is of compelling urgency.“
Jörg Michael Henneberg
Art and soccer
“Since 2001, an entire soccer series has been created for 1.FC Union Berlin. The painting “Sea of Flags” is a cry of jubilation, is intoxicating, full of passion and so full of energy. As if fireworks had gone off in the middle of the stadium. Torsten Schlüter has brought these fireworks to the screen as an expression of everything that 1.FC Union Berlin means to him – and to so many…“
Dajana Rubert, Frank Willmann, U.N.V.E.U., Berliner Verlag, February 2016
Early works
Early works from the eighties. The Weimar period and Hiddensee. “The conditions, enriched by the yellowish breath of the city, form a bubbling mixture. In dark and gloomy dormitories for the young savage painting as a means of escape and aggressive confrontation. What helps: the longing for the island.”
from the catalog “Hexen und Hexen”, ACC Galerie Weimar
