The large-format, often multi-part photographs by Sarah Westphal (b. 1981, Wermelskirchen) are puzzling and frequently eerie. Folds and reflections, veils and curtains, are constant motifs in her pictures. With her works in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Westphal, who is based in Berlin and Ghent, explores the theme of concealing and revealing, and does so in a manner as profound as it is fascinating. This places her in a long tradition: the title of the exhibition, ‘Timpano’, relates to an historic genre of textiles that were hung in front of valuable paintings – to protect them or to conceal them.

Concurrently with the major special exhibition ‘Secrets of the Painters’, the museum is presenting, in its Medieval Section, nine selected works by Westphal. Her photographs fill the gaps left by important works which have been moved to the exhibition space in the basement, works such as Stefan Lochner’s ‘Madonna in the Rose-bower’. In penetrating fashion, the photographs address the theme of the paintings’ temporary absence, and thus, so to speak, of a ‘visual fast’.