Martin Assig

Martin Assig’s artistic cosmos circles invariably around the human being, asking essential questions about our existence and its transcendental manifestations. The artist enquires about the dichotomy between life and death, about loving and longing, suffering and loss, all basic human fates and emotions. As art historian Ullrich writes in the exhibition catalogue of Assig’s extensive retrospective at Museum Kuppersmühle in Duisburg: ‘The pictorial works offer themselves as counterparts and companions for inner monologues, as instigators for internal conversations’.

Martin Assig is less of a contemporary artist in a topical sense, the subjects he raises are fundamental and enduring, not current socio-political ones. He could be seen in a tradition of religious or mythological image-making with the aim of reaching metaphysical realms through the creative process. And though Assig’s compositions tempt us with colourful iconography, the message is not religious and does not spare us from our darker sides. The artist touches the innermost of our feelings, he ventures into realms humans often are fearful to explore or express. In his epic series St Paul, an homage to Paul Klee, Assig, like Klee, uses text to communicate another level of understanding. The words can elevate the visual impact, but also be enrichingly out of sync with the external and internal image depicted. St Paul was started in 2009, comprises more than 1000 drawings and was partly shown at the museum Boijmans von Beuningen in Rotterdam in 2016. The cycle chimes with Assig’s personal life of illness and salvation, of existentialist questions and musings, of life and art-related thoughts and penchants. The viewer gets the impression that the artist has to reaffirm through his art that he is still alive.

Exhibitions at the gallery:

Tag für Tag | Brussels, 2025 (Solo exhibition)

Promise, 2024 (Solo exhibition)