Shell of the Building in Winter

Werner Berg : „I was advised to name this picture as Shell of the Building in Winter. I believe that this title appropriately fits it. First of all, I am in no way whatsoever inclined to make accusations; however, I do register, if only in my paintings. I am fond of this “Shell of the Building in Winter”: it used to be in winter, then in summer;  and, out of the blue, and in the face of the all-consuming perfection of the New, the Completely New, you feel the decay more powerful than that emanating from the ruins. And then the most recent time - all of a sudden - looms ever more menacingly.

The faceless shell of the building is suggetive of the decay of the feel for form as handed down from one generation to another, and is indicative of the destruction of the pristine landscape through the mounting overdevelopment. An unusual vanitas-painting under the weight of the bleak sky.

In an attempt to allay his suspicions and ease his despair, Werner Berg imprinted their traces into his late paintings. The nature as manifested in the paintings appears affected by human interventions, and looks absent and hostile. Sunken-eyed, it beckons to the beholder through the dark window-holes of the incompletely constructed buildings which are locked in the deadly embrace of the snow. Werner Berg disloses metaphors of futility, transience and Death everwhere.