SYLVESTER STALLONE

An Artistic Soul: 75th Birthday Retrospective at the Osthaus Museum Hagen

4 December - 20 February 2022

10 November 2021

Following various museum exhibitions in Europe, the Osthaus Museum Hagen is presenting a comprehensive retrospective of Sylvester Stallone's works on the occasion of his 75th birthday. The complete oeuvre from the late sixties to the present day as well as the various artistic phases of the action star will be illuminated. On display are more than 50 pictures, including self-portraits and never-before-seen early works.

Stallone's pictures are on the one hand as expressive as his films and on the other hand subtle and multi-layered in their statements. The Hollywood star uses various art forms such as surrealism, expressionism and abstraction as forms of expression. Painting has been an intimate part of Sylvester Stallone's creative expressions for 55 years.

"That's what I love about painting, it's the only true communication you can have. Writing can be manipulated, painting is the fastest and purest translator of the subconscious. When something is going on inside you and you hit the canvas, it's hard to fake it. The artist on the canvas is number one for me when it comes to conveying his feelings."

Sylvester Stallone:

Stallone's most famous film character ROCKY was first created on screen long before the film script, and is featured in the exhibition as 1975's "Finding Rocky".

"A talented person is talented in every way."

Russian saying 

SYLVESTER STALLONE - HIS ART

Stallone discovered a love of painting at a young age. His early works, which he signed Mike Stallone, were still very experimental. For financial reasons, however, he worked as a writer and began his acting career. In the seventies and until the end of the eighties, he created gloomy, expressive works in which he processed, among other things, the death of his manager and other strokes of fate. At this time, Stallone worked mainly with illustrative graphic lines and bright colours.

In 1989/90, a change became apparent: Sylvester Stallone became intensively involved with contemporary art and studied artists such as Picasso, Gerhard Richter and Anselm Kiefer. He studied the abstract works of Mark Rothko and developed his very own style. He created numerous expressionist works, some as alienated self-portraits, others playing with language.

Sylvester Stallone - Recent Museum Exhibitions

2013 State Russian Museum St. Petersburg 

2015 Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Nice

Sylvester Stallone

75th Birthday Retrospective

4 December - 20 February 2022

Osthaus Museum Hagen

Museum Square 1

D-58095 Hagen

www.osthausmuseum.de

OSTHAUS MUSEUM HAGEN

The Folkwang Museum opened its doors in the Westphalian industrial town of Hagen in the summer of 1902. Founded by Karl Ernst Osthaus, it became famous as the world's first museum for contemporary art.

For the director, Dr Tayfun Belgin, it is important that his museum illuminates the power and lasting significance of art in today's global society. The museum aims to interest and inspire people in South Westphalia, the Ruhr region and throughout Germany for the Osthaus Museum, its important collection of modern and contemporary art and its special exhibitions. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive bilingual catalogue edited by Dr Tayfun Belgin, Director Osthaus Museum Hagen.