Marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and Germany, the Museum für Asiatische Kunst is now showing photographs and drawings by Gabriele Heidecker as a continuation of the special exhibition "The Landscapes of Sri Lanka”. The artist created these works during a trip to Sri Lanka in the winter of 1978/79 - 100 years after the first golden age of photography in British Ceylon. In the tradition of 19th century travellers to Ceylon, Gabriele Heidecker focused her lens on the sublime beauty of the Sri Lankan landscape.

The artist’s colour photographs and largely monochromatic drawings reveal her keen sensitivity to detail, composition, and the vastness of the tropical landscape’s mountains and oceans. The people in Heidecker’s photographs seem to merge with the landscapes that surround them, linking her work to the 19th century tradition of landscape photography. It is the uniform manner with which Heidecker treats people, animals, and landscapes however, that distinguishes her work and underscores her pointed interest in composition and form.

Sensitive portraits of Sri Lankan people feature prominently in her drawings, although plants are also given vivid representation. And while her photographs attest to the grace and quiet of tropical landscapes, her drawings marvel at the drama of the tropical sky and the power of the churning ocean.