About Veronika von Kathen
‘The artist Veronika von Kathen paints portraits from an unusual angle. She transfers the fascination that the face and especially the eyes of a person exert on her to the viewer through her paintings. As an architect, she also endeavours to paint for rooms, effectively decorating both large and small walls.
These pictures do not fail to have an effect, magically attracting us or making us shiver. In any case, they have an unusual charisma that arouses emotions. They allow for a wide variety of interpretations, based on the viewer's very personal life experience or the mood they are in at the time....’
Renate Warmuth, Berlin, February 1992
My passion: architecture and painting
Veronika von Kathen was born in Berlin in 1950 and lives and works in Berlin. She had already submitted her application portfolio for art college, but then fulfilled her father's fervent wish to become an architect. Nevertheless, she continued to live her dream of painting as a successful architect. As an architect, she had to design her ideas in the same way as in painting. Architecture and art have a close connection. Painting gave her the creative freedom that is possible, but more limited, in functional architecture. In order to find a balance to the geometric formal language of architecture, she turned to contemporary portrait painting very early on. During her architectural career, various exhibitions of her paintings followed in Berlin and Brussels. Having given up the management of her planning company, she now devotes all her energy and dedication to the art of painting.
She paints people from her imagination and her portraits often do not conform to social expectations. They are therefore unusual and thus unique.
Mission
To develop face reading skills in order to interpret facial expressions and emotions
Reading a person's signals means opening a window to their soul. When looking at the portraits, people think about the meaning of a work of art and this strengthens their ability to empathize.
Vision
There should only be empathetic people
Our world would be better. Selfishness would have no place in society. There would be no more lonely people.
Mission
To demand human responsibility for animals as fellow creatures and their life and well-being.
With my dog portraits, I try to bring the feelings of the animals closer to the viewer through the often anthropomorphically depicted protagonists. Animals can think and feel and if they could laugh and cry, a happy life on an equal footing with humans would be possible. We must give animals a voice in the press, in children's books, in art, in politics and in our society. So that the suffering of animals finally comes to an end. Living together with animals and touching them can make people happier and more peaceful.
Vision
My vision is that we treat animals as equals and as our friends and family members
Equal rights means that animals have a right to a species-appropriate life and that this right can also be enforced by animal advocates. I have the vision that animals will no longer suffer.
Mission
Let us become heroes of the light, colourful, confident, but also defiant and courageous. Our common goal should be to dispel the darkness
Contemporary artist Veronika von Kathen's series ‘No Power to Darkness’ is about the desire for a colourful, peaceful world without wars, hatred, selfishness and violence. Every person portrayed in this series should become a hero of light.
Vision
My vision is a peaceful world without wars
Conflicts are often necessary and are part of the peaceful coexistence of people. Democratic social change can emerge from this. All demagogues in this world should lose their power.
Mission
We must experience our nature in order to protect it
The strong symbol of a tree stands for power, strength, protection and immortality. Trees give us shade, oxygen and their beauty sometimes makes us shiver. As artists, we need to bring nature closer to the viewer. Without trees there is no life, but they also need our help to survive.
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Vision
We are leaving our children and descendants a healed nature
Healthy people and healthy animals live in healthy nature.
Painting style
The contemporary portrait painting of Veronika von Kathen
I describe my painting style as contemporary portrait painting, or modern painting. Since I do not depict real people, the degree of realism is different; I design the portrait on the computer, then paint it on the canvas with acrylic paint. As acrylic paint dries very quickly, several layers can be painted on top of each other in a short time. The contours of the face and hair partially blur with the background. The colour application of the acrylic paint is opaque, the feel of the garments is emphasised by the brushstroke in the picture, by applying several layers of paint.