Born in 1954 in Germany, Kurt Mair studied art in Germany at the Ecole Supérieure de Pédagogie in Lörrach from 1978 to 1983, before deciding to study art history, archaeology and Japonology at the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg for 4 years. From 1987 to 1990 he completed his studies at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg, where he specialised in the graphic arts and studied engraving and lithography. After 5 years working for a graphic arts studio in Colmar, Kurt Mair decided to set up as a painter in 1996. He paints, engraves and draws on lithographic stone and regularly exhibits his work in Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, etc.) and Indonesia.

For Kurt Mair, the body is the expression of an intensity and an intimacy that vary according to the space he chooses to show its interiority or purpose: "There is a kind of vocabulary of the body, an imaginary alphabet that speaks to me in an expression that can be immediate or unconscious". KM

Between humour and even irony, Kurt Mair's works go beyond the Tuscan palette of Italian colours to reveal the moment, the artist puts technique at the service of the moment, allowing himself to be caught up in the contemporary world in which he is rooted.

Certain themes recur in his work: "still lifes", "Stilleben" in German, which literally means "silent life", more precise in his sense than the French form, and nudes or portraits inspired by the painters of the Italian Renaissance and the German Expressionists. Kurt Mair lays claim to his masters, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Fernand Khnopff and Egon Schiele, whose works he has studied, while he works on proposing a vision of the unfinished, with energy, doubt and awareness.

Kurt contacted me by email in September 2023. I was initially taken aback by his contemporary vision of the characters and this abolition of the time vector. The eras rub shoulders, clash, complement and index each other, seeming to converge on the present moment. The line then takes its rightful place and emerges from the canvas in the midst of this subtle, harmonious and controlled palette, linking the characters and replacing time. I loved this homage to the painters of the Renaissance, placed in the context of our times and our everyday lives. Humour and irony, between a visionary rendering and a shift in our societies, the artist questions the visitor.