This modest overview of twelve paintings executed by Magnus von Plessen since 1999 was a thoughtful reinvestigation of traditional easel painting and an unexpectedly intense reinvigoration of genres and emphases sometimes considered exhausted. Portraiture, allegory, still life, anecdotal figure painting, architectural studies, and even equestrian imagery were investigated anew—not in a mocking or dismissive manner, but rather as still-potent types, the collective weight of which it now seems impossible for a contemporary painter to transcend or otherwise escape.

The uncomfortable sense of the