Alternative Merkel Portraits Challenge Official Kanzleramt Painting

The official portrait of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, painted by Jérémie Queyras, was unveiled last week at the Bode Museum in Berlin and will hang in the Chancellery alongside predecessors. Critics described it as 'almost styleless,' 'somewhat awkward,' and 'bureaucratic court portraiture' embodying 'Merkelcore'—a celebration of conflict-free mediocrity. In response, Monopol magazine presented alternative artistic interpretations. Saskia Scott von Webel's 'Merkel und Völkerfrieden' (2025, oil on canvas, 100x120 cm) depicts Merkel before the Reichstag in a wheat field with a larkspur 'Völkerfrieden,' her favorite flower, symbolizing ambivalence between peace and toxicity. Hermann Josef Hack's 'Mantelmadonna Merkel, 150917' (2015, painting and collage on tarpaulin, 305x303 cm) shows Merkel as a protective cloak Madonna with a halo made from the UN emblem, created during his 'World Climate Refugee Camp' installations. Saâdane Afif and Oliver Mark's 'Foreground' (2022, C-print on aluminum dibond, 140x120 cm) obscures Merkel behind background paper, based on a 2009 photo by Mark in the Chancellery. Katrin Funcke, an illustrator, painted multiple portraits from mid-tenure photos, emphasizing Merkel's 'extremely bright eyes and soft nose,' releasing them early due to the debate. Funcke appreciates the official portrait's 'modesty' compared to earlier power-laden depictions like Jörg Immendorff's Gerhard Schröder portrait.