Manfred Scharpf

Manfred Scharpf was born in 1945 in Kißlegg. Trained as a church painter, graduating from the master school in the city of Munich. Freelance painter with international exhibitions since 1974.

A circle closes for the painter Manfred Scharpf in Ottobeuren. His life with art began here as an employee of a church painter. He developed his unmistakable work from church painting, unimpressed by the rapidly changing standards of modernism. He thus held the "Ariadne's thread" in his hands, which was to lead him and his art to the metropolises of New York, Brussels, Berlin and Paris. He consistently uses sophisticated historical painting techniques to build a bridge between our origins and the present day. His materials are identical to 15th and 16th century painting, but often reach back to antiquity. The painter sets their wisdom against the zeitgeist of our era, allowing Dante's Beatrice, Sybilla, Ariadne, Caecilia and Sophia to speak to us. For him, they are nothing other than personifications of the anima, the source of creative impulses. It is good to listen to them, because wisdom is universal, as are the conflicts of our time that we have to overcome. Ariadne also hands us the thread with which she once led Theseus out of the labyrinth.

The works on display are painted documents from the painter's multifaceted life. They contain not only the moments of happiness, but also his conflicts with the world, both of which are relevant to him for a fulfilled artistic life. A hero's journey to realisation.

So we ask him - what is his conclusion from this journey? And the painter answers: "Everything that happens to us, whether good or bad, was and is our soul's innermost desire - a boundless space of human experience."

The works are accompanied by anecdotes and written notes that preceded and initiated the work as encounters, ideas and impulses. An art-historical approach is important, but it does not go far enough for the painter. He prefers to let life and experience speak for itself, as a manual labourer in the "service of the spirit".

Last edited on 07.11.2025