David Pher Yellancolia For Sale
David Pher
Yellancolia, 2024
Acryl, Oil on Canvas
74 x 67 In
About this work
David Pher has emerged as a distinctive voice in contemporary figurative painting, building a dedicated following among collectors who recognize his ability to merge emotional depth with formal sophistication. Working between Berlin and his native roots, Pher draws from the European expressionist tradition while maintaining a resolutely contemporary sensibility, positioning his work at an intersection that resonates with both established and emerging collector bases. *Yellancolia* exemplifies Pher's mature approach to portraiture and psychological exploration. The title itself suggests a meditation on melancholy filtered through the artist's characteristic palette, where yellow tones—traditionally associated with vitality and warmth—are subverted to evoke more complex emotional states. Executed in both acrylic and oil on canvas, the work demonstrates Pher's technical command across media, allowing for varied textural qualities and luminous depth that reward sustained viewing. At 74 by 67 inches, this is a substantial canvas that asserts itself within any collection or institutional setting. The scale speaks to Pher's ambition and his confidence in addressing themes of interiority and human experience on a monumental register. Works from this period reflect the artist's ongoing investigation into color as emotional language, a conceptual thread that has defined his most sought-after paintings. As Pher's visibility continues to grow across European and American markets, works of this caliber and dimension represent significant opportunities for acquisition. Guy Hepner is pleased to offer *Yellancolia* to collectors seeking substantive additions to their holdings. For acquisition inquiries, please contact Guy Hepner directly.
Price on Application
Edition & Provenance
- Year
- 2024
- Medium
- Acryl, Oil on Canvas
More from this series
About the Paintings Series
The original paintings of David Pher move between psychological weight and raw chromatic force. Working large-scale from his Berlin studio, Pher builds surfaces through repeated layering, overpainting, and erasure, leaving the history of each canvas visible in its final state. The result is painting that feels accumulated rather than resolved.
Several works carry German titles that operate as interior landscapes. Am Teich, Leises Land, and Yellancolia hold a quieter register, weighted with stillness and psychological depth. The invented language of Yellancolia, merging yellow and melancholia, is characteristic of Pher's approach: meaning suggested rather than stated.
Others push outward. Noise Over Meaning, Say Yes - Mean No, and In Vino Traumatas address the contradictions of contemporary life with a directness that reads as both personal and cultural. Take It Or Leave It and The Reincarnation of Hugo Drax carry a more confrontational, even theatrical charge.
Sonetta stands apart as the most lyrical work in the group, its title evoking a musical form that mirrors the rhythm and color balance of the composition itself.
Pher uses acrylic, oil, chalk, and drawn interventions across surfaces that hold physical presence in a room. The scale is intentional. These are not works to be glanced at but moved into, their internal dynamics revealing themselves gradually.
Each painting is unique, hand-finished, and signed by the artist.
About David Pher
David Pher is a Berlin-based contemporary artist working primarily in large-scale painting. Born in central Germany in the 1980s, he developed an early focus on color, rhythm, and spatial tension, concerns that continue to structure his practice. His work sits at the intersection of gestural abstraction, chromatic field painting, and materially driven surface work, with color functioning as the primary compositional agent across the pictorial field.
Pher's approach resists a single visual language. Certain works move toward expansive, color-dominant compositions that border on abstracted landscape, while others draw in fragmented text, graphic notation, and moments of deliberate semantic disruption. Meaning in these paintings is neither fixed nor resolved, remaining open to the viewer's reading.
Central to his methodology is the accumulation of process. Surfaces are built through successive layering, overpainting, interruption, and partial erasure, keeping the temporal construction of each work visible. This is what gives the paintings their characteristic physical density.
Pher's work has been exhibited across Europe and the United States, including his debut at Art Miami in 2024. His paintings are held in private and public collections in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. In 2023 he collaborated with Zara, and in 2025 with Berlin-based label August Eleven, extending his practice beyond the gallery context.