“Helmut Dorner or the remarkable slowness of the gesture of an understanding in general” (Denys Zacharopoulos), “A painting of modifications” (Ulrich Loock), “Painting upside down” (Alain Cueff), “Towards a spectral painting” (Jean- Charles Vergne). The titles of some published essays on Helmut Dorner’s work indicate that it no longer lends itself to a traditional and determined classification.

The multiple tendencies within his painting, articulated by the range of different materials and processes, the fragmentation of his art, visualized by the variety of the structuring of the surfaces, place him in a solitary position.

Dorner’s painting is not figurative, but neither is it abstract. It has links with experienced places and climates, as if trying to save a painting, once landscapes, reducing it to pure light and color. The oil and lacquer that Dorner uses articulate each one of the different possibilities and dimensions of the experience. While the oil paintings emit an extreme touch and materiality, the paintings made in lacquer are directed more towards the intellectual sensitivity.