Dunkler Engel 2005

Siegfried Zademack's ‘Dunkler Engel’ is a deeply atmospheric painting that’s all about dark colors and strong light; it feels like a dream, or maybe a nightmare. Look at the surface – it’s smooth, almost like glass, which makes the textures he’s added stand out even more. The wings, they're rough and kind of broken, but then you have these little red strings hanging down. It’s like he's thinking about how things connect, how they're held together. What I like is that the angel, she's not floating around in the sky, she's very much a person, with all the flaws and imperfections. It reminds me a little of Paula Rego, who also painted women with a similar vulnerability. It’s this idea of the angel as a human and the human as an angel, you know? Art isn’t about giving answers, it’s about asking questions, and ‘Dunkler Engel’ asks some pretty good ones.