The work of the Dresden-based painter Frank Hoffmann (*1972) is underpinned by the tension between authentic perception and clichéd notions of voices. Starting from the early Romantic concept of romantic irony, he is fascinated by the floating dialectic between illusion and demystification, self-reflection and consternation. He makes his way through the rushing history of art and ideas, and opens up spaces of meaning by means of formal as well as content-related allusions to idealistic, Romantic pathos and beauty. His new book provides an overview of his work of the past eight years.