Michael Bach was born in Sehma, Erz Mountains in 1953. From 1975 to 1983 he studied at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie: 1975-79 with Norbert Tadeusz at its department in Münster, 1979-83 with Gerhard Richter as a student in Richter's master class. Bach lives and works in Düsseldorf.
Bach’s work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Munich, London and also New York. Recently, he had a comprehensive solo exhibition at the municipal gallery in Rastatt, which was accompanied by a catalogue.

Michael Bach’s work features views of cityscapes, houses, and complexes of buildings, offers insights into train stations and building sites.
Starting with photographed images, he alters his motifs to create new compositions. Views of an urban culture with roads devoid of people take on the character of model cities. Using a seemingly realistic style of painting whose preformed point of departure lies in a technical, photographically assisted view, Bach creates new aesthetic arrangements which are transformed into ideal landscapes.

The artist is neither interested in documentary depiction, as in architectural painting, nor in hyperrealism. The photographs merely function as sketches.
In his paintings the new objects which he composes render the seeming realism inanimate. Details deemed worthy by Bach are compacted afresh in the painting. Life and people are only present in the shape of architectural constructions which in this way take on the function of relics.

By predominantly using muted colours and toning down colourfulness, Bach creates an otherworldly atmosphere. Hans-Ulrich Obrist confirmed this when he likened Bach’s images to the theatre stage of Paul Delvaux.
Smooth surfaces appear rigorous and anonymous in his pictures. Michael Bach addresses the painterly aspects as well as the current conditions and possibilities of the medium of painting.
Urban life, with its seeming implicitness, is constructed by Bach in an expressively picturesque fashion. Accordingly, the distance he creates between us and the objects with the help of painting is not spatial but atmospheric.

He questions or even exaggerates the traditional environment; public space is highlighted. The newly created views are turned into backdrops, emitting a kind of stable unrest.
Martin Hentschel spoke of a world without noise which is like a decommissioned world. Bach’s most recent pictures show illuminated night-time views of buildings. A heightened dynamic with contrast between light and dark is created which, however, abandons the viewer in this scene devoid of people.

Parallel to the cityscapes Michael Bach focuses on human likeness in his portraits. In this group of works the question of how to define a living environment is put differently. Bach portrays the intimacy of private moments with the help of everyday situations.

Main page - Michael Bach

Curriculum vitae