Auf der Galerie

Franz Kafka's short parable Up in the Gallery presents two diametrically opposed ways of looking at an artist's life: Servitude for a pittance and self-sacrifice for a dubious audience; or triumphant performance for passionate adoration.

In Maja Bühler's illustrations, the just two long nested sentences of the text are separated by distinct colour schemes. But even in the gloom and harshness of the first half, which is in black and white, the joy of visual elaboration and embellishment always shines through, to be burst onto the stage unrestrained in the second half.