The Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro (MCAM) announces the opening of an exhibition by Max Neumann, one of the most important representatives of contemporary German figurative painting. The exhibition will open on Tuesday, February 3, at 7 p.m., at the MCAM Gallery. The exhibition is curated by Natalija Đuranović.
The exhibition presents a selection of works in which the human figure stands as the central and enduring motif of Neumann’s artistic practice. His enigmatic, depersonalized figures—often reduced to silhouettes immersed in shadow—do not represent individuals, but rather a universal symbol of the human being: a figure shaped by inner psychological states, fears, tensions, and the existential unease of the contemporary world.
As curator Natalija Đuranović points out, “Max Neumann rejects narrative, constructing the figure as a universal sign of human existence, immersed in silence and the inner tension of contemporary life.”
Neumann’s painting stands in opposition to the noise and visual oversaturation of today’s world. In an era dominated by images and spectacle, his compositions appear as “frozen” scenes—spaces of silence in which loneliness, alienation, and the emotional distance of modern humanity are laid bare. A minimalist expression, a restrained color palette, and a strong contrast between the figure and the abstract space further emphasize the rift between the individual’s inner world and external social structures.
“His figures hover between the real and the imaginary, becoming symbolic bearers of universal existential states, while the painting itself becomes a space of psychological and metaphysical everyday life,” Đuranović notes.
Max Neumann is one of the most significant representatives of the German figurative painting tradition. Since the late 1970s, he has realized more than 150 solo exhibitions worldwide. He has exhibited, among other venues, at the Museum Folkwang in Essen, the Saarland Museum in Saarbrücken, the Centre d’Art Plastiques in Royan, the André Malraux Contemporary Art Space in Colmar, the Bruce Silverstein Gallery in New York, as well as in numerous galleries in Paris, Berlin, Milan, Brussels, Madrid, and Tokyo. His works are held in major public and private collections, including the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, the Maeght Foundation, and the Seibu Museum in Tokyo.
The exhibition of Max Neumann is realized in collaboration with Gallery Puzić.