Andrea Freckmann‘s (1970) new paintings have the general title ‘Damals. So beautiful’ (Once. So Beautiful). Recently a renewed interest in the past can be observed as a response to the unsettling developments of our time. Andrea Freckmann looks at this phenomenon of nostalgia critically because the past is often idealized and does not necessarily correspond to what it really was fifty years or soago. The paintings contain paraphernalia from the 60s and 70s such as lace curtains, a Volkswagen beetle, rural villages built around a church in and trains in mountainous landscapes. Freckmann adds abstract patterns to these familiar  nostalgic images to open up the frozen image of the past and make room for a view into the future. Often on the periphery of the image there is an enigmatic multi-sided object that you can see as an embodiment of this abstraction and perspective into the future. The canvases are painted in Freckmann’s bald and dynamic brushwork. In her most recent painting, a glass showcase containing a miniature church, board game, mountain landscape and a single arm almost bursts out of the frame of the canvas in a daring perspective.