Walter Ophey. With flying colours

A pronounced, exhilarated sense of colour was an important source of inspiration to him and had a formative influence on his works. Likewise, new impulses gained by art, nature or travelling invariably had an impact on his palette as well as on his signature brushwork.

In his work Ophey strove for maximum simplicity and clarity. What makes his coloured chalk drawings so unique is that he limited himself to outlining contours, blurring lines in a certain direction in order to make objects radiate.

Owing to his early death his work almost got buried in oblivion. In 1954, Museum Kunstpalast acquired his estate, holding today the largest collection of the artist’s works, comprising 170 paintings and more than 3,000 works on paper.

Walter Ophey’s extensive oeuvre is now introduced in the first eclectic overview exhibition since 1991, drawing from the museum’s own stock and complemented by selected loans. You are invited to rediscover this remarkable, idiosyncratic artist.