How much does Common Ground cost?

Common Ground (2026) is priced at $56 USD. The work is currently available for acquisition directly from the studio, through partner galleries, or via 1stDibs.

What are the dimensions and medium of Common Ground?

Common Ground (2026) measures 200 × 240 cm and was created in Acrylic and oil stick 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 Common Ground about?

Common Ground (2026) by Claus Bertermann is a large-format figurative painting — acrylic and oil stick on canvas, 200 × 240 cm, hand-painted, not AI-generated. The work presents a condition rather than a narrative: a young couple seated close together under a fruit tree, facing out of the picture. More than fifteen ripe orange fruits hang within easy reach on the branches above them, drawn as loose scribbled rings, and neither figure has looked up. The oldest scene in European painting is here without its plot — nothing is being offered, nothing is being taken. The event is lower down and easy to miss: at the faces the two are unmistakably two people, at the collar the boundary begins to fail, and below the waist the painting stops distinguishing them altogether. The title is not a metaphor about agreement but a description of the lower half of the canvas. For this work, part of his 2026 figurative series, Claus Bertermann separates the two operations that make the picture. The ground is painted first, in coarse, broad brushstrokes that keep the movement of the arm visible: the yellow light, the orange field behind the heads, the blue trunk, the teal band at the left. The drawing comes afterwards and lies on top of that painted ground — the oil stick sets the cobalt contours of both faces and eyes, the scribbled rings of the fruit, the green blades of foliage, the branches of the tree and the black lattice crossing the lower third of the canvas. The drawn line does not conform to the field beneath it; it cuts across it and keeps its independence. Unlike his abstract works, nothing here is scraped back — the image is built forward: coarse painted ground below, decisive drawn contour above. The composition places the two figures right of centre beneath a tree painted in strong cobalt and ultramarine, its trunk rising left of centre and its branches reaching to both edges of the picture. The figure at the left has pale yellow-green skin and a dense mass of green and black hair, with almond eyes, a fine drawn nose and a small orange-red mouth; the figure at the right has the same pale skin and cobalt blue hair, a longer face and an orange mouth, set against a burning orange halo. Their heads touch, and below them the bodies merge into one continuous field of orange, vermilion, dark green, black and violet. The upper background is cadmium and lemon yellow with white passages, a broad band of teal runs across the left middle ground, and the lower third is dominated by a large orange field crossed by blue oil-stick branches and black scribbled lattices. Anatomy and perspective are intentionally simplified and distorted, prioritising emotional weight over realism. All surface irregularities are intentional and integral to the artist's process. Signed by the artist on the front and back, Common Ground reflects Claus Bertermann's ongoing exploration of closeness, attention and shared space — a museum-scale double portrait that keeps the couple and the fruit tree of the European tradition and quietly removes the temptation from the scene.

Is Common Ground AI-generated?

No. Common Ground is a hand-painted original created entirely by Claus Bertermann — Acrylic and oil stick 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.

Common Ground | Figurative Works

Common Ground (2026) — 200 × 240 cm | 79 × 94 in

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

Common Ground, 2026 — detail 12 | Claus Bertermann

Common Ground, 2026 — detail 13 | Claus Bertermann

Common Ground, 2026 — detail 1 | Claus Bertermann

CLAUS BERTERMANN — Common Ground (2026), 200 x 240 cm