Munich: Literaturhaus shows Nikolaus Heidelbach's fantastic worlds - this show is a show!

Created: 05/18/2022, 16:28

By: Katja Kraft

copy-of-nikolaus-heidelbacmaerchen-aus-aller-weltblumencnikolausheidelbach.jpg © Beltz & Gelberg 2010

The Literaturhaus Munich is showing 251 original sheets by the award-winning illustrator and author Nikolaus Heidelbach.

A fantastic experience for children and adults!

He is fast.

Because your own curiosity chases your pencil across the paper.

First there is an idea, and then Nikolaus Heidelbach would like to know how what he has imagined in his imagination might look on paper.

What's on his mind?

The force in bags, oh what, oversized sacks.

For visitors to the Munich Literature House, the 66-year-old opens a little door into his brilliant world of ideas - and you want to linger for more than a moment, it's so beautiful!

The award-winning illustrator and author Nikolaus Heidelbach is a master of the great art of small details.

Here visiting the show in the Munich Literature House.

© kjk

The award-winning illustrator and author, born in Niederlahnstein in Rhineland-Palatinate, can not only paint and tell stories in an unmistakable style;

All of his clever, ambiguous, floating and enigmatic works are based on what is perhaps his greatest talent: Nikolaus Heidelbach is a master of observation.

How does he know me so well?, one asks oneself with very, very many of the 251 (!) original sheets that can be seen in the show.

All lovingly pinned to the walls and to the bottom of the showcases with pins;

with the same needles that Heidelbach uses when he spreads out his work in front of him at home in Cologne-Nippes.

It is obvious that Anna Seethaler and the team from the “unodue{ münchen” design office, who curated the exhibition, have also mastered the art of small details.

Nikolaus Heidelbach tells the world from a child's perspective

So, how does the Heidelbach manage that you constantly rediscover yourself in the pictures with your own wishes, dreams, fears?

The answer to this question is in his CV.

For the years 1978-83 it says: "Babysitter".

Of course, people want to know from him, who came to the opening of the exhibition, what it's all about.

It's as simple as it says: As a young man, he once moved to Berlin – in order to be able to afford the place, he looked after the sons of friends.

And learned what drives children.

“The child is a highly complex object.

Most illustrators leave out 80 percent of what defines children.

But children are more than big eyes and snub noses.” Even back then in Berlin,

later in everyday life with his own children and now with his two grandchildren, Heidelbach is fascinated by the not so sweet side, the uninhibitedness with which children can sometimes be brutal.

Because that is one of the small expenses of ourselves, just like the exuberant tenderness with which they suddenly throw themselves into your arms.

In a reading corner of the exhibition hall in the Munich Literature House, visitors are invited to read Nikolaus Heidelbach's books - or to have them read to them by actors using an audio guide.

© kjk

All of this is reflected in Heidelbach's paintings.

Using watercolours, opaque white and colored pencils, he creates worlds from a child's perspective that we have all walked through before.

Unfortunately, as life progresses, many lose the signpost to these wacky corners of our imagination.

Heidelbach gently pushes us back in the right direction.

The window panes of the exhibition hall are decorated with underwater pictures that invite you to dive down.

She, too, from a book by Nikolaus Heidelbach.

The title: "When I grow up, I'll be a seal." Why not?

Until July 31, 2022 in the Literaturhaus Munich, Salvatorplatz 1, daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.;

further information is available here