Art Portrait

At first sight the sculptures of the artist ZANDMANN seem quite harmless. While strolling past, I noticed striking forms of concrete and steel and my instinctive turning in the direction of these objects, I attributed to my affinity for clear, contemporary architecture. Exposed concrete and rusty steel, in combination with fine woods and polished surfaces, have long since become part of our living culture.

Continue reading “Zandmann – The need of Suicide Tools”

He is considered a talent of the century, developer of cubism and pioneer of modernity. The word “Picasso” alone has become a symbol for art, perhaps even for “not understood” art. But what is the difference to his contemporaries and to what extent did the artist live up to his role as a superstar? Or in short: how did Picasso become Picasso?

Continue reading “Pablo Picasso – the artist of the century”

Whoever is confronted with Ron Mueck’s work will experience a similar change of feeling: childlike curiosity, fright, disgust, alienation, amusement, but certainly not indifference. As a trained puppet maker, Ron Mueck has mastered the art of creating almost perfect illusions.

Continue reading “Ron Mueck – cognitive dissonance”

Part of Andreas Gursky’s success may be due to the principle “Give the monkey(s) sugar”. And art historians and feature writers gratefully pick up the breadcrumbs that have been sprinkled. Gursky’s portfolio is broad enough. It gives the occasion to think about everything and nothing, to reflect. About poverty in the world, capitalism, socialism, working conditions, luxury, and what else is burning under the nails of the clever minds of the time. More offensively, only the highly polished objects of a Jeff Koons make the critics masturbate intellectually. But Gursky really shouldn’t be blamed for that.

Continue reading “Andreas Gursky – Searching for reality”

When Joseph Beuys said that art is about showing his wounds, it is much easier to understand in his oeuvre than in the abstract, painted blocks of a Sean Scully.Sean Scully – an outsider and that from the beginning. Born in Ireland, he grew up in London in the 1960s. A youth marked by poverty and violence. Among other things, he tells of having earned his living by betting on billiards – a person who has a rich repertoire of bizarre anecdotes to offer.

Continue reading “Sean Scully – most romantic”

I still remember well when I first came into contact with works by Jeff Wall at the MoMa in 2007. The MoMa had dedicated an exhibition to the Canadian photo artist (born 1946 in Vancouver). Large-format photographs illuminated by bulky light boxes. The then familiar, characteristic color nuances of pre-digital photography did not yet seem as distant as they do today.

Continue reading “Jeff Wall – intimate alienation”

There are artists who are more familiar with art history than with their own work. They are able to interpret facts and put their own work into intellectual contexts that can only be astonished. (Especially when you look at the works they do.) Wolfgang Tillmans is different.

Continue reading “Wolfgang Tillmans – The exploration of the unexpected”

Lucian Freud (1922 – 2011), grandson of Sigmund Freud, is one of the most important and influential artists of his generation. He is considered a “master of painted flesh” and is remembered as a multi-faceted personality. Ennobled by the Queen, showered with prizes (including Turner Prize winners) and honoured with solo exhibitions (e.g. Museum of Modern Art NY, Centre Pompidou Paris).

Continue reading “Lucian Freud – Master of Painting”

By the time Alex Katz finished his art studies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine, the art world began to develop more rapidly than ever before. Artists like Jackson Pollock – known for his action paintings – caused a sensation. Abstract Expressionism was born, and if there was perhaps a common denominator in this art world, it was that figurative painting was not exactly hip.

Continue reading “Alex Katz – painter of the modern age”

Granted, he is one of my absolute favourites: the great Vincent van Gogh – outsider, desperate, fighter and believer. The man who goes against the tide and goes down – must go down. An “underdog”, but so completely different from the protagonist in Thomas Bernhard’s novel. A man who perishes in a society that cannot see the obvious and remains trapped in its conventions.

Continue reading “Vincent van Gogh – my favourite”

Born in 1954, Swiss photographer Michel Comte is a master of spontaneity and change, always seeking new challenges. In the more than 30 years of his career, he has photographed film stars, supermodels, jazz and art greats as well as people in the world’s hot spots. Comte’s photographs are taken on the red carpet of film festivals and luxury hotels as alert and curious as in the ruins of the war zones of Afghanistan or Bosnia.

Continue reading “Michel Comte – between glamour and intimacy”

Georg Baselitz – the last German painter prince and one of the few who really deserve this name. For Baselitz’s work is painting at its best. Snotty, clear, direct, unsparing and always poetic. But one thing at a time, because Baselitz is certainly ambivalent. Born in 1938 in Deutschbaselitz in Saxony’s Upper Lusatia, he began his art career in 1956 at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee.

Continue reading “Georg Baselitz – snotty poetry”