Walter Stöhrer is one of the rebellious mavericks of German art. His abstract painting, which regularly refers to literary models (André Breton, Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, etc.), is difficult to place in an art historical category. In 1959, after studying at the Karlsruhe Art Academy under HAP Grieshaber, Stöhrer moved to Berlin. There he first became intensively involved with etching, which offered him resistance as a bulky artistic technique and at the same time allowed linearity and gesture. In this way he developed a counter-position to the static pictorial architecture of his teacher, which subsequently led to a free interplay of writing, drawing and painting. Stöhrer's paintings are distinctly expressive gestural, as if painted in one go. They resemble energy fields, overlaps, confrontations, dialogues that act out their forces liberated in the painting process. The tension between calculation and spontaneity, the simultaneity of linear hardness, ciphers and color streams, and the disturbing beauty of his painting have made him an unmistakable painter personality.