The following pages document the largest coherent collection of the artistic work of Berlin artist Erika Rintelen, who died in 2004 at the age of 79. The paintings were created between 1988 and 2004 and vary in different forms and techniques. Thematically, they are the expression of a specific concept of contextual painting.

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Contextual painting in the sense understood here sees itself as part of concrete social reality. From this it receives important stimuli and impulses. At the same time, it strives to influence the social context through critical interventions.

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It is therefore not surprising that a large part of the works presented here deal with themes that have a decisive influence on contemporary political discourse: War and peace, refugees and displaced persons, poverty and wealth, unemployment, globalisation, disparity of milieus, urban frigidity.

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Contextual painting aims to use the means of art to awaken and sharpen viewers' awareness of the complex problem aspects of the themes it deals with. In this sense, aesthetics always also has a political dimension for it.