“THE THINGS” is the title of the fall 2025 exhibition at the Baruther Glashütte Museum and Glass Studio.

Through March 2026, Astrid Germo and Karsten Wittke will present nearly 50 paintings they have created using the reverse-glass painting technique.

Germo and Wittke succeed in making DIE DINGE speak for themselves—a difficult goal to achieve in cultural-historical museum work. Objects and phenomena that are usually overlooked in everyday life become visible in their own essence through Germo and Wittke’s depictions in acrylic or lacquer paints behind glass. The familiar becomes a work of art, becomes a monument. Germo and Wittke succeed in making THESE THINGS speak for themselves—a difficult goal to achieve in cultural-historical museum work. Objects and phenomena usually overlooked in everyday life become visible in their own essence through Germo and Wittke’s depictions in acrylic or lacquer paints behind glass. The familiar becomes a work of art, becomes a monument.

The Baruther Glashütte Museum is pleased to present reverse-painting on glass for the first time. The panel, as a painting surface, is part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity “Manual Glassmaking” due to its traditional craftsmanship using the cylinder method. The use of glass panels as a painting surface attests to the significance of hand-blown flat glass as the result of a craft tradition worthy of protection. The glass studio at the Baruther Glashütte Museum is a venue for cultural heritage. The glassmakers working here are part of the association dedicated to manual glassmaking.