The early 80s

Postmodernist debates and »anything goes« set the tone for art in the early 1980s. Form, design and attitude are being called for, mostly in combination with a certain playfulness. Cold War, the resolution to deploy new arms, ideological incrustation and Helmut Kohl are the order of the day. Yet its is also the time of post-punk, New German Wave, the anti-nuclear movement and an ubiquitous »no future« attitude. An article in the newspaper »Die Zeit« notes in bewilderment that Cologne is on a par with New York in its importance for the art scene.
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Through a permanent examination of other avenues for artistic work and his preoccupation with the emerging »new media«, Ottersbach explores the conditions and possibilities of painting, a medium that has long lost its sovereignty over the image. The disruptions and continuities of his own biography and his keen interest in politics and history define his work from the outset.