Is Nice Try available for purchase?

Nice Try has been sold. Other works by Claus Bertermann are available at bertermann.art/works.

What are the dimensions and medium of Nice Try?

Nice Try (2026) measures 150 × 130 cm and was created in Acrylic and oil crayon on canvas.

How can I acquire a painting by Claus Bertermann?

Works by Claus Bertermann are available directly from the studio, through partner galleries, and via 1stDibs. Contact the studio via the form at bertermann.art/contact.

Does Claus Bertermann have a gallery representative or exclusive agent?

No. Claus Bertermann works as an independent artist without exclusive gallery representation, dealers, or agents. Works are acquired directly from the studio at bertermann.art, through non-exclusive gallery partnerships, and at international auction houses.

What is Nice Try about?

Nice Try is a figurative painting by Claus Bertermann whose title arrives from everyday spoken language — an expression so common that it has become almost invisible, yet one that carries a precise social charge. "Nice try" acknowledges effort while announcing failure; it is simultaneously generous and dismissive, appreciative and patronizing. Bertermann's use of it as a painting title is characteristic of his figurative series: he reaches for language that is specific, loaded, and colloquial rather than elevated or deliberately poetic. The title establishes a character before the painting begins — whoever or whatever is depicted in Nice Try has attempted something. What exactly has been attempted, and who is judging the attempt, the painting does not explain. The viewer brings the social dynamics of the phrase — its history of use in competitions, negotiations, arguments, games — into the encounter with the visual work. Bertermann's figurative paintings routinely engage with power dynamics: the observer and the observed, the judge and the judged, the one who speaks and the one who is spoken about. Nice Try positions the viewer as the speaker of the phrase — or, alternatively, as its recipient. The painting does not fix this relationship; it stages it. Technically, Nice Try follows the approach of the entire figurative series: paint roller for the background, oil crayons for the figurative elements. The gap between the flat mechanical background and the drawn, gestural figure is where the visual argument of the series lives — and where the social argument of a title like "Nice Try" finds its formal home.

Is Nice Try AI-generated?

No. Nice Try is a hand-painted original created entirely by Claus Bertermann — Acrylic and oil crayon on canvas. All works by Claus Bertermann are made by hand. In a time when AI-generated imagery is increasingly common, every Bertermann painting is a unique physical object, never digitally produced.

Nice Try | Figurative Works | Claus Bertermann

Nice Try (2026) — 150 × 130 cm | 59 × 51 in

Acrylic and oil crayon on canvas. Hand-painted original — made by a human artist.

Nice Try, 2026 — detail 12 | Claus Bertermann

Nice Try, 2026, 150 × 130 cm — full view | Claus Bertermann

Nice Try, 2026 — detail 1 | Claus Bertermann

CLAUS BERTERMANN — Nice Try (2026), 150 x 130 cm