exhibited:
20.03.–20.05.2026 Gelingen. Gelingen, curated by Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna, AT

The paravents by Sarah Bechter are three-part paintings that can be presented both as freestanding structures and mounted on the wall, carrying the entire history of panel painting on their “shoulders.” In their freestanding form, they function as spatial dividers and, once detached from the wall, occupy space in three dimensions, actively challenging the viewer. At the same time, their potential for wall display opens up another mode of reading: closer to the traditional pictorial support, yet still shaped by their structural multiplicity and internal sense of movement.
Their physical presence—referencing human proportions—intensifies the viewer’s awareness of their own body and creates a sense of sharing the same space as the works. The paintings appear almost like subjects: they can turn, enclose, or observe. Bechter’s paravents connect painting with site-specific spatial architecture, initiate communicative processes, and open up a performative field of experience.
The works convey a sense of painting’s own autonomy: colors, forms, and brushstrokes seem to make decisions, emphasizing the tension between control and chance, the visible and the concealed. In this way, a “transitive painting” emerges—one that encompasses movement, interaction, and imagination, always accompanied by sensitivity and a subtle sense of humor.