The plant commonly known as Amaryllis, belonging to the genus Hippeastrum, originates from the winter rain regions of South Africa and is very popular in Germany, as its bloom in winter is seen as a good omen for spring. Maria Brunner was born in 1962 in Lienz, Austria, and currently lives in Berlin. In 2014, she dedicated an entire cycle of small-format oil paintings to the Amaryllis plant. This first comprehensive publication of her oil paintings from recent years, which she has painted with great virtuosity, also includes a series of large canvases featuring floating draperies from 2015, as well as small, curved drawings made with glassine felt-tip pens from 2016. Maria Brunner's work has always been marked by profound doubts about whether things are as they appear. Her oil paintings have nothing in common with the hyperrealism of Franz Gertsch or Chuck Close, nor with disappearance, blurring, or the ephemeral.