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Sylvester Stallone attended a gallery exhibition in Germany, where his own work was showcased. If you’re surprised by this, you likely didn’t know that Sylvester has been a consistent painter throughout his life.
The exhibition showcases some of Sylvester’s paintings, gathered between the years 1966 - 2020.
Sylvester shared his accomplishment with an Instagram post, showing the cover of the German magazine Der Spiegel — seen grasping some paintbrushes with paint running down his arms — and another photo of himself boarding a plane. “Heading Back home after a fantastic exhibition in Germany. I was criticized in the beginning, that’s normal human behavior. But all it took was one gifted man and a great gallery to give me an opportunity and it turned that all around… That’s why you must never ever stop punching for the stars. #DER SPIEGEL Publication,” he wrote.
The exhibition, hosted at the Osthaus Museum, opened on December 4th, and will continue until February 22nd. It gathers 53 of Sylvester’s greatest original paintings, some of which have never been shown to the public.
Before the exhibition kicked off, Sylvester showed a clip of some of his paintings, showing their bright colors and abstract shapes. While pointing at one of his paintings, he explained his approach to it. “This is the first time I got into minimalism and working on untreated linen,” he said.
Sylvester has been painting for most of his life. According to Art Net, he painted the character of Rocky before he wrote the movie’s screenplay, which he starred in and launched his career. “I made a self-portrait with a more defined ‘pug face’ than I had back then, but to capture his sadness, I switched the brush with a screw driver and carved the eyes,” he explained. That painting is now one of his most revered pieces of art.
While his painting career didn’t take off in his youth, as he’s aged, he has been able to pursue both of his passions, acting and painting. He considers them opposites. “Painting is where I feel close to a bare naked truth, so much so that I look at the canvas as some sort of an enemy,” he said. “The film industry is about pretend, which lets artists shut out reality a bit and instead welcome fantasy.”