* 1938, Arnsberg † 2004, Münster

Since 1957 he lived in the living area of the Alexians. He was a very active and creative person engaged in several theater groups. In 1983 he began to paint in art therapy. In the meantime, Karl Bergenthal belonged to the studio group of the Haus Kannen artists. He had his own workplace, where he found himself painting four times a week. His work has already been presented to the public in solo and group exhibitions.
His pictures are characterized by yellow and orange-red shades of amazing luminosity. They were created slowly and by overlaying several layers of oil chalk or watercolor paints. Already created structures and motifs could be completely overpainted or altered during the painting process, which often lasted several months. Typical is a grid of horizontal and vertical lines, which the painter in lead or colored pencil predesignated. Here Bergenthal "writes" his motives: friends, houses, flowers, witches, gifts. He also began to paint his pictures with symbolic signs, which he distributed loosely over the surface, then worked on or covered with new layers of paint. His pictures are seldom completely abstract, again and again one discovers new figures and objects. Often the painter also added lines as a kind of caption.