About the work

Bernard Schultze produced this watercolour during his annual stay at a health spa in Bad Neuenahr in the summer of 2004. The artist had celebrated his 89th birthday several weeks prior to this on 31 May. Despite his advanced age, he would never have considered the possibility of no longer working. He had explained this some time previously in an interview: “Painting is my purpose in life and my lifeblood. I am happy to be able to go to my easel and paint every day, whatever comes of it. Painting doesn’t make me tired; it keeps me awake". (Cat. Bernard Schultze, Welt im Farbrausch, Petersburg 2002).
“Neuenahr 16”  was the last in a series of sixteen watercolours in various formats, with the sheets “Neuenahr 12” to "Neuenahr 16" having identical dimensions. The watercolour practically radiates in the voluptuous colourfulness of the purple-violet, brilliant red and cool blue, transparently nuanced shades. Only partially permeated by chromatically neighbouring colour fields, the watercoloured areas arrange themselves into organic patterns. Comparable with a landscape that invites the viewer to change his perspective from the frontal to the bird’s eye view.
(Barbara Herrmann)