Anna Fiegen

Gewaschene Moderne

When architecture - built or planned - is depicted, it is usually in the idealized virtual world of architectural renderings. Or through the medium of photography, which by necessity always carries with it a mood and context. The buildings in the paintings of Anna Fiegen are also based on photographs, both her own as well as those procured by chance from books or the internet. However, they are neither sterile surface nor colored by their situational connectedness. Rather, the buildings inspired by brutalist Modernism show a reduced essentiality. Nevertheless, it is not without irony when, for example, the easily recognizable Berlin Corbusier Haus contrasts with the simple geometry of a birdhouse.


The title can be read equally ironically: the exposed aggregate concrete of Brutalism (derived from the French Béton brutfor raw or exposed concrete) is reminiscent of our preconceived notions that can be ‘washed out’ through observation. The catalog design of MüllerValentini does not interfere with interpretation, but picks up on elements: through a typography that is in the best sense ‘brut’ (raw). Colors that, in cool restraint, do not comment on or gloss over anything. And a layout that places the images, large-format and monumental, in the foreground.

Client: Goldrausch Künst­lerinnen­projekt 
Services: Conception, editorial design