Alexander Koester

Alexander Koester kept a pond’s worth of ducks in his Munich garden, which explains why his paintings of ducks feel less like animals and more like old friends you’ve watched paddle around for years. The feathers on his canvas move like real light, not like stiff museum specimens. Slide over to *Rațe*—the one where the ducklings look half asleep in the reeds—and you’ll see what he means by “still life with heartbeat.”