Page 115 - Winter Issue
P. 115

How did your journey into art begin, and what originally drew you to painting?
             For  as  long  as  I  can  remember,  I  have  expressed  myself  through  painting.  As  a  small  child,  I  started  drawing  and
             painting on the walls of my room one day because there was no paper available. After about a month, the walls had to
             be re-painted because there was no more space. After that, however, I was never allowed to use them as a painting
             area again; my parents had forbidden it. Art is an important part of my life. However, it wasn't a given that I would
             choose a professional career as an artist, especially as my family didn't react very enthusiastically when I told them
             about it. But I always knew that this was my future and I didn't let myself be dissuaded. To finance my studies and
             make ends meet afterward, I had a few part-time jobs. Meanwhile, I can devote myself completely to art. Growing up in
             Berlin  in  the  2000s  also  impacted  my  choice  of  career.  The  diversity  of  people  in  the  city,  and  the  various  cultural
             influences – all inspired me immensely and I felt the desire to capture and process those influences artistically. As I am
             a hypersensitive person, I sometimes seem withdrawn to others. It wasn't until I started studying art that I occasionally
             was able to talk about topics that were relevant to my artistic work, as I had finally found some like-minded people at
             university. Another influential factor was my father's library, which I had access to at all times. It contained books on
             Rembrandt, Goya, Kokoschka, and Degas – to name just a few.
             Which historical or contemporary artists do you feel most connected to, and how have they impacted your
             creative approach?
             There are quite a few. Ultimately, every artist is significant in their own time. I feel most connected to those artists
             whose  works  I  recognize  as  being  strong  and  true  and  nothing  about  them  can  be  questioned.  These  are  the
             outstanding works that keep me going for weeks after visiting an exhibition. I felt this way for the first time when I saw
             Pablo Picasso's “The Yellow Sweater”. Later I noticed this with one of Claude Monet's water lily paintings: That was in
             2004  in  an  exhibition  of  works  from  New  York's  Museum  of  Modern  Art  at  Neue  Nationalgalerie  in  Berlin.  But
             contemporary art also has this effect from time to time; most recently it was a work by the Polish painter Andrzej Fogtt
             that fascinated me.
             Your  work  has  been  compared  to  that  of  artists  like  Cy  Twombly  and  Francis  Bacon.  Do  you  find  these
             comparisons meaningful, or do they sometimes restrict interpretation?
             As the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said: “What the heart resists, the head does not accept.” I think
             many works by the two mentioned artists are outstanding. When art critics compare my oeuvre with that of Bacon and
             Twombly, I'm elated, of course.
             Your work is known for being conceptually layered and visually complex. How do you balance these elements
             to engage and challenge viewers?
             That's a tough question, and I've spent several years finding an answer to it. One day, I had the idea to write it on the
             backsides of my paintings. The thing is, however, that I couldn't reveal it all at once. Thus, on each of the backsides, I
             only wrote three words and one number. So, to solve the enigma, viewers would have to see as many as possible of
             my paintings, turn them around, and combine all the fragments. –– But seriously, it's a secret recipe. Streng geheim!
             The  arpeggio  painting  technique  you  developed  is  unique  in  its  layering  of  diluted  oil  paints.  Could  you
             elaborate on this process and its effect on your compositions?
             Imagine an arpeggio chord: The notes sound immediately after the other, so they can be heard individually, but they
             still form a harmony. By using the arpeggio painting technique, in which the paint is applied in wafer-thin layers, one on
             top of the other, I can relate all colors and shapes of the painting to each other. As a result, they sound together – but
             each  layer  also  has  its  own  sound.  The  technique  requires  a  high  degree  of  precision  and  takes  a  lot  of  time.  I
             sometimes spend several months on one painting. What’s more, if I notice during the process that the layers of paint
             don’t sound together as planned, I have to determine whether I can rework them so that I still obtain the desired result.
             However, this doesn’t always succeed because overpainting might ruin the transparency.
             How do you see the role of art in addressing urgent environmental and social concerns today?
             Art offers one of the last remaining spaces for open, constructive dialog; almost all other areas of discourse - whether
             politics or the global economy - have so far failed to produce any viable solutions to urgent social and environmental
             problems. One of the reasons for this is the ever-increasing polarization and the power constellations cemented by it. In
             this respect, art opens a window in the wall beyond which our future lies. Those who look at works of art may therefore
             find a way to prepare themselves for what awaits us - or even take the initiative to shape the future in a positive way. It
             is important to note however that art does not have to do any of this; it does not have to fulfill a social mission per se. It
             can simply exist without being bound to a specific purpose.

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