Magnus Plessen is best known for a painting style that combines additive and subtractive techniques, employing both brush and spatula. The impetus of each work often begins with a photograph, which Plessen categorically believes imprisons its subject in time and space. His aim in revisiting these images is to resuscitate the subjects, and therefore make what he calls “completely unsentimental” paintings—“Perhaps an image that leaves the viewer—and also the art object and its creator—much freer,” as he says. Plessen is also known for his signature blocky forms and the blending of figures and background, as well as the use of vivid colors. In more recent works, he has been exploring ideas of rotation and revolution, and employing a central axis point in his compositions.