Willi Oltmanns | Bauernhaus und Getreidehocken | 1969 | Öl auf Hartfaser

Willi Oltmanns is one of the outstanding painters of post-expressionism in northern Germany. Like Fritz Overbeck, Oltmanns also began his artistic career in the inspiring atmosphere of an artists’ colony: born in Wilhelmshaven in 1905, he went to Schreiberhau in the Riesengebirge (Giant Mountains) at the age of 19 and became a member of the Künstlergilde St. Lukas (Artists’ Guild of St. Luke). The talented autodidact dealt intensively with the art trends of his time but soon developed his distinctive style. In 1937 he was banned from exhibiting and military service and war imprisonment interrupted his artistic work. Most of his early work was lost.

In 1947 he ventured a new beginning in Delmenhorst, where he lived and worked for more than 30 years until his death. He remained connected all his life to the North German landscape – as his home and as his most important artistic subject: another parallel to Fritz and Hermine Overbeck. Oltmann’s closeness to Expressionism and his attentive, life-affirming artistic attitude find their expression in an intense visual language that unreservedly approaches its subjects in bright colors and vigorous shapes. Firmly joined contours add to the expressive dynamics of the pictures. Oltmanns sensitively captures the mood of a fleeting moment; at the same time, his works portray reality in a timeless manner that is still resonating with viewers to this day.