An Introduction to the 'Spider's Web paintings'
by Claus Brunsmann

The movie "The Girl in the Spiders Web" is an American-German co-production and was filmed in Berlin. The first shocking moment (as seen in the trailer above) in which Lisbeth kidnappes the bad guy, was staged in the penthouse on top of the famous Boros Collection.

The first big painting is a landscape, an empty valley surrounded by mountains
that was inspired by a black and white photograph. Stylisticly I oriented myself on Richter's early conceptual grey photo paintings of the late sixties. Think of the famous "Duomo" or "Uncle Rudi". It created a very own empty and claustrophobic 'landscape portrait', which reflects the psyche of the rogue, which is held to account by Lisbeth in an unconventional way .

The second painting was even more complicated because it was based on a private photograph. It should, however, be greatly alienated, almost beyond recognition. It is inspired by the series of "Mother and Child" paintings from the Museum Hamburger Kunsthalle, paintings in a 19th century cabinet style, that are extremely small in size. However, the producers wanted a large picture of three meters height, wich was meant as visual counterpoint to the emptiness of the surroundings.
It took me a while to finally find the right shapes and the guts to almost obliterate the mothers face. In the end, an overwhelming, strange intimate mother and child portrait emerged in a way, that nobody had expected. That´s how my painting process is all about: discover something that is completely surprising and new to the viewer.

Homeland

HOMELAND SEASON 5 / EPISODE 10 +11

A group of my abstract paintings played a not insignificant role in the eleventh episode of the fifth season of the American television series Homeland, entitled "Our Man in Damascus." In the strictly shielded secret service headquarters in Berlin, capital of Germany, you will find it in the office of Saul Berenson (played by Mandy Patinkin), the head of the CIA's European operations. You see Claire Danes and Nina Hoss walking by some of my most colorful abstract works.

Paintings that could have made it into movies...