Exhibition at Uniseum Freiburg: ‘Bert Jäger through the Lens of Informalism’

Art informel, tachisme, art brut, abstract expressionism, and action painting emerged in the post-war period as variants of a gesturally abstract form of image making that sought access to unconscious creation through the use of automatic techniques. This movement is reflected not least in the existential situation of society after World War II. The paint was mixed not on the palette but directly on the surface to be painted; the artists worked with their hands, with brushes and brooms, spatulas and scrapers, and with the strength of their entire bodies.

Jäger began painting in the motoric way characteristic of informalism in 1960. A catalogue of his works edited by Dieter Weber, published by the modo publishing house in 2022, led to a comprehensive scholarly appraisal of his oeuvre. The exhibition shows around 25 of Jäger’s works, including paintings, ink wash paintings on paper, and photographs. They are displayed alongside selected works by Willem de Kooning, Emilio Vedova, Karel Appel, and Asger Jorn, as well as works by significant representatives of the German informalist movement, such as Peter Brüning, Karl Fred Dahmen, Karl Otto Götz, Gerhard Hoehme, Bernard Schulze, and Fred Thieler. The comparison shows that Jäger found his way to one of the most expressive and at the same time absolutely independent interpretations of this style.

A separate area of the exhibition is devoted to Jäger’s Percent for Art projects. The artist is present to this day in many public places and at the University of Freiburg, for example at the Institute of Mathematics and the Institute of Medical Virology, Microbiology, and Hygiene. Moreover, many Freiburg alumni, students, and University employees are familiar with his abstract ceramic mural on the wall of the Rempartstraße cafeteria. Jäger also designed the commemorative stamp for the 500th anniversary of the University of Freiburg’s founding in 1957 – and he is the creator of the so-called flame cross still used today by Caritas Germany.