Susanne Kühn

Leipzig painter Susanne Kühn, who has had recent one-person shows at Goff+Rosenthal gallery in New York and Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute, makes vibrant works on canvas and paper that call to mind great German Romantics like Joseph Anton Koch and Caspar David Friedrich. However, what at first glance seem to be clichéd scenes of naturalistic mountains, forests and ravines, often populated by a single, pensive, isolated female figure, come together with elements from other historical and cultural contexts--comics, architecture, lyric abstraction, Japanese woodcuts, Disney animation and East German graphic design--so that the paintings feel entirely contemporary. This first comprehensive monograph features an informative interview with the artist, critical essays on her work and a wealth of vivid color plates depicting works from 2003 until today.