Measuring the moment

The exhibition title refers to the central concern of his artistic work, which is to capture the fleeting interplay of light, color, and atmosphere in the picture — not as a representation, but as a living painterly process.


Friedrich Porsdorf, born in Radebeul in 1938, studied painting at the Berlin University of the Arts from 1957 to 1962 under professors Kurt Robbel, Walter Womacka, and Arno Mohr.

After working as a freelancer and completing his postgraduate studies, he began teaching basic art in 1970. He was appointed lecturer in 1980. In 1993, he was appointed to teach basic artistic skills—drawing, nature study, painting, color theory, and painting techniques—and in 2003, he was awarded an honorary professorship. Until his retirement, he influenced generations of students; since 2004, he has been working as a freelancer in Berlin.

For Porsdorf, “measuring the moment” does not describe an analytical grasp, but rather a sensual penetration. His painting arises from direct experience of nature – often plein air – on travels through Germany, Europe, and Africa. He always translates the tectonics of the landscape and the structures of the built environment into independent images, preserving the light of a particular moment. Characteristic features include broken tones instead of unmixed colors, an open, risky style, and the atmospheric layering of spots and shapes. Sky and earth form a dynamic alliance in his landscapes. Clear horizon lines dissolve in favor of a painterly shimmer.

Porsdorf takes abstraction to extremes without abandoning his connection to reality. He is not interested in the abstract goal, but in the path to it—the process in which patches of color become objects and landscape becomes image. His works from Radebeul or Meissen, from Hiddensee, the Mediterranean, or the Atlantic testify to this attitude, as do his numerous studio paintings. He also has a particular focus on portrait painting: here, too, it is ultimately the color that determines the story a picture tells.

Since 1965, Friedrich Porsdorf has been represented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad. His works can be found in public and private collections.

With the exhibition “Die Vermessung des Augenblicks” (Measuring the Moment), the hospital church in Wuhlgarten honors an artist who believes unwaveringly in the power of color – and preserves the fleeting in it.

• Opening: Saturday, March 14, 2026, 5 p.m.
  
• Laudatory speech: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hans V. Behrbohm
  
• Concert: Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Berlin e.V.
  

Spring concert with works by Antonio Vivaldi, Joseph Haydn, and Johann Sebastian Bach performed by the first-class string players of the DSO QUARTETT – Veronika Miecznikowski and Jisoo, Hong (violin), Sara Umansky (viola), Milan Drake (cello)