Renate von Charlottenburg

Renate von Charlottenburg has been drawing since early childhood and in doing so has developed a highly authentic and distinctive style.

For her, drawing is not an end in itself; rather, it is the artistic opportunity to fathom, experience, and make visible the being and essence of things behind the outward appearance. This essential being gives face and form to the allegorical drawings of Renate von Charlottenburg, allowing them to communicate with the observer in a personified and pithy manner.

Through Renate von Charlottenburg’s metacultural, meta-religious and cosmopolitan approach and perspective, her drawings are able to not only lay bare the roots of Western European culture and attitudes but also to furnish insight into the foundations of other world views, such as that of East Asia.

The delicate, classical and familiar storytelling style of the artist’s pictures
makes it easy for viewers to engage with them and immerse themselves.
In this way, the imaginal world of Renate von Charlottenburg provides the wonderful possibility of witnessing the ‘infinite fullness of being’ and rejoicing in it; and behind the seemingly trivial, of discovering the essence
of things and the self-creative fairy tale.

Renate von Charlottenburg was born in Bochum/Germany. There she studied at Ruhr University, taking several semesters of German language and literature, philosophy and psychology. She then emigrated to India but quickly left for Southern France and soon afterwards returned to Germany, where she spent many years in a secluded house in
the countryside before moving her studio to Berlin’s Charlottenburg neighbourhood.