I once went to a demonstration in Aachen against fare increases on public transport. A police officer pulled out a bunch of my hair, and there were a lot of violent beatings. That's when I thought to myself: You'd better leave it alone.
Wolfgang BeltracchiI went to the flea market in the morning and charged tourists money to take pictures of me. I looked pretty wild, with hair down to my waist, Indian robes, a floor-length fur coat. There must be lots of photos of me out there.
Wolfgang BeltracchiI never decided to become an art forger. I was aware of my talent at an early age, and I used it foolishly. This developed over the years. In my heart, I don't see myself as a criminal.
Wolfgang BeltracchiSometimes I smoked opium. And I also took LSD - for a while, quite a lot of LSD, in fact. But I never had any bad experiences. I stopped in 1985. I'd had enough, and I don't miss it, either.
Wolfgang BeltracchiYou can't paint pictures of love. You can only imagine them. So I suppose I don't need a painting by another artist. I have enough of my own.
Wolfgang BeltracchiThe interesting thing is that in everyday life, I fail to see the most ordinary things. I often stumble and sometimes I even fall over. But when I draw or look at a painting, I go into a sort of overdrive and just see things differently than other people.
Wolfgang BeltracchiI only painted when I felt like it and needed money. But it never really became a professional thing, even though the dealers would have liked that.
Wolfgang BeltracchiFor the cynic, art is defined through money. That, of course, is a very sad statement. But an artist is someone who does creative things.
Wolfgang BeltracchiThe trick is to paint a picture that doesn't exist, and yet that fits perfectly into an artist's body of work.
Wolfgang BeltracchiFame never interested me. I could have exhibited more of my own works in the 1970s, but I didn't want to. It's sort of like being a child. When you're finished with school, you have only one thing on your mind: to get out and experience life. Did I want to spend all my time working on a painting? No, I wanted to have fun, travel, meet women and live life.
Wolfgang BeltracchiI lived on a houseboat in Amsterdam for a year. It was intense, and it's possible that I even had a few blackouts.
Wolfgang BeltracchiEvery philharmonic orchestra merely interprets the composer. My goal was to create new music by that composer. In doing so, I wanted to find the painter's creative center and become familiar with it, so that I could see through his eyes how his paintings came about and, of course, see the new picture I was painting through his eyes - before I even painted it.
Wolfgang BeltracchiOne is a criminal to some people and an artist to others. I can understand that. In a legal sense, I am a convicted criminal.
Wolfgang Beltracchi