Is The Lawmaker available for purchase?

The Lawmaker has been sold. Other works by Claus Bertermann are available at bertermann.art/works.

What are the dimensions and medium of The Lawmaker?

The Lawmaker (2023) measures 210 × 160 cm and was created in Acrylic and oil stick on canvas (based on a sketch from Poet Marcelino Fernandez Suarez).

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 The Lawmaker about?

The Lawmaker is a figurative painting by Claus Bertermann and one of the central works in his systematic examination of institutional authority. Where The Judge interprets and applies law, and The Executor carries out its consequences, The Lawmaker stands at the origin of the system: this is the figure who determines what the rules are. The lawmaker's power is of a different order from all others in the institutional hierarchy: the judge is bound by the law, the executor by the sentence, the committee chairman by the agenda. The lawmaker, at the moment of legislation, is bound only by other lawmakers and by the limits of political possibility. This is the most fundamental form of social power — the power to define what is permitted and what is not. Bertermann's decision to place this figure within his figurative series — alongside the judge, the beadle, the committee chairman — is a commitment to showing the full architecture of institutional authority, not just its most visible or dramatic peaks. The lawmaker is not always visible; much of lawmaking happens in committee rooms, in drafting sessions, in the tedious machinery of governance. The painting makes the lawmaker visible. Technically, The Lawmaker receives the same treatment as every figure in the series: paint roller for the flat, graphic background; oil stick for the drawn figure. The most fundamental social authority is rendered in the most graphic, immediate visual language.

Is The Lawmaker AI-generated?

No. The Lawmaker is a hand-painted original created entirely by Claus Bertermann — Acrylic and oil stick on canvas (based on a sketch from Poet Marcelino Fernandez Suarez). 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.

The Lawmaker | Figurative Works

CLAUS BERTERMANN — The Lawmaker (2023), 210 x 160 cm

210 × 160 cm — 83 × 63 in

The Lawmaker, 2023 — detail 1 | Claus Bertermann

The Lawmaker, 2023, 210 × 160 cm — full view | Claus Bertermann