Virgen Extra — A New Figurative Work in Progress

I’m currently working on a new large-scale figurative painting titled “Virgen Extra.” The scene is simple: a distinguished gentleman drinks olive oil Virgen Extra straight from the bottle. The painting operates as a metaphor for our present moment: a world that feels increasingly detached from logic, proportion, and consequence. When reality starts behaving irrationally, sometimes the only reasonable response is to do something equally irrational — with dignity. “Virgen Extra” continues my recent focus on figurative work, where characters appear caught between gesture and collapse, clarity and overload. Influenced by German Expressionism and Art Brut, I use bold color fields, fragmented outlines, and raw painterly marks to build emotional pressure inside the composition. The figure is both absurd and composed — a quiet observer participating in the chaos. While my abstract paintings explore rhythm, structure, and spatial balance, my figurative works introduce narrative tension and psychological presence. Here, color isn’t decorative; it’s structural. It carries weight, irony, and contradiction. This piece is still in progress, but already signals the direction of a broader figurative series currently developing in my studio. After recent works such as The Winner Takes It All – The Bitcoin Hand, this painting marks another step toward merging social commentary with large-scale contemporary painting. More figurative works in this language will follow. Sometimes art doesn’t need to explain the world. Sometimes it just mirrors it — bottle included. Published on bertermann.art, the official website of artist Claus Bertermann. Oviedo, studio