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Reflections on the artistic journey of Hans-Jürgen „Hänner“ Schlieker, as seen through the „Geneva Collection“ of his works.
Hänner Schlieker has always been a presence in my life, not only as a beloved grandfather but also as an artist.
A typical work from the late 1960s hang on the wall of my first apartment in Berlin in 2000. Later, in my student home in the small town of Witten, it was joined by a large diptych, which accompanied me throughout my studies.
Over the years I collected more than 30 of his works. The core of the Geneva Collection is a diptych from 2003. It moved into my first apartment in Geneva in 2009, where it was within sight through countless sometimes inspired, sometimes arduous hours I spent writing my doctoral thesis.
After, it greeted visitors in the hallway of the first home my wife Miao and I moved in together, and where we welcomed our first daughter Luna.
Later, it would radiate across the beautiful, generous, open spaces of our Florissant apartment, where our second daughter Clea completed our family.
Today, the painting holds pride of place over the dining table in our home in Conches, a position of honor for one of Schlieker’s last works, completed shortly before his passing in 2004.
As Schlieker paintings have always been in my life they speak to me in a deeply personal and likely subconscious way; they are silent companions, at times soothing, at times stimulating, and sometimes just there to reassure „this is home“.
However, when I started photographing and cataloging the works I collected over the years to commemorate his centenary, I started looking at them in a new and conscious way. Thus began a small journey of discovery into the world of an extraordinary artist.