How much does So Be It cost?

So Be It (2026) is priced at $13 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 So Be It?

So Be It (2026) measures 80 × 130 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 So Be It about?

So Be It (2026) by Claus Bertermann is a wide-format figurative painting — acrylic and oil stick on canvas, 80 × 130 cm, hand-painted, not AI-generated. The work presents a condition rather than a narrative: a crowned figure seated frontally, with every piece of identifying evidence deliberately withheld. There is no coat of arms, no date, no hall of state, no territory — behind him stands not architecture but a wall of brushed green, and the two pale figures at the edges of the canvas have already begun dissolving into it. Only the crown is unambiguous. He could be the monarch of a great power or the king of a village of eleven houses; the portrait would be identical either way. The format carries the argument: the state portrait is vertical by rule, so that the sitter towers and the viewer looks up, while this canvas is wider than it is tall and hands him across at eye level. He does not appear to mind. The title is what is said once the arguing has stopped. For this work, part of his 2026 expressionist series, Claus Bertermann paints the entire field wet-in-wet with large brushes — the green ground, the lilac mantle and the dark green tunic laid down while the paint is still live, the brush marks left standing so thickly that the surface holds visible ridges. On top of this fluid ground the oil stick does the drawing: the dense violet loops that read as ermine trim at both cuffs, the white lines describing the fingers, the blue signature at the lower right. The image is built forward, not scraped back — volatile colour below, decisive drawn line above. The composition centres on a single crowned figure, frontal and seated, occupying the middle of a wide horizontal canvas. His face is painted in warm and dark browns, the eyes, brows and mouth drawn in blue-black line, the ears laid in with pale ochre; on his head sits a broad crown of cadmium and lemon yellow with pointed peaks, applied in heavy impasto. A dark green tunic closes at the neck and chest, and over the shoulders falls a wide mantle in lilac, violet, white and pale grey that opens across almost the entire width of the picture, with passages of black and deep violet in the folds beneath. At each cuff a band of violet oil-stick loops describes an ermine trim, and below it the hands — ochre and cream, their fingers drawn in white line — rest open on the arms of the seat. The ground behind is built from broad horizontal strokes of grass green, sap green, white and turquoise, worked wet and left restless; at the left and right edges two upright pale forms in blue, cream and ochre read equally as attendants and as columns, half absorbed into the surrounding paint. 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, So Be It reflects Claus Bertermann's ongoing exploration of status, endurance and the accidents that decide who is remembered — a portrait that keeps the crown and removes the documentation.

Is So Be It AI-generated?

No. So Be It 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.

So Be It | Figurative Works | Claus Bertermann

So Be It (2026) — 80 × 130 cm | 31 × 51 in

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

So Be It, 2026 — detail 10 | Claus Bertermann

So Be It, 2026, 80 × 130 cm — full view | Claus Bertermann

So Be It, 2026 — detail 11 | Claus Bertermann

So Be It | Figurative Works | Claus Bertermann

CLAUS BERTERMANN — So Be It (2026), 80 x 130 cm