Die Nachbarn II - Schnitzeljagd (The Neighbours II- Treasure Hunt)

Executed in 2006, Die Nachbarn II - Schnitzeljagd is a sensational work by the Düsseldorf-born, Antwerp-based painter Kati Heck. Renowned for vast oil paintings that probe the connections between pleasure and vice, creativity and intoxication, and beauty and the grotesque, Heck is a precise master of her medium. Her paintings are held in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis. This outstanding early example, whose name translates as The Neighbours II - Scavenger Hunt, is laden with enigma. It pivots around three nude self-portraits of Heck, depicted atop a partially bare canvas. On the left she poses as if a model, while to the right another incarnation stares intensely towards her beholder. This figure is connected by her pubic hair to a third nude self-portrait, which assumes a ghostly incorporeality. Behind this triad, Heck paints a verdant, rolling landscape centred around a futuristic building. The outline of a cartoonish sausage — a recurrent leitmotif in Heck’s work — and a frying pan add a dash of absurdity. Fusing these graphic elements with the meticulous classical depiction of the nudes, Die Nachbarn II - Schnitzeljagd proves a striking testimony to Heck’s deft exploration of the creative potential of painting.