A Trip To Germany
Robert Reitzfeld
While in Germany
for my own exhibition at the Berliner Kunstprojekt, I spent (as most artists
do) quite a bit of time looking at art. Here then are some of the artists and
the art that touched and excited me.
Thomas Zitzwitz
A young painter from Cologne, and some of the most exciting works I’ve seen
in the last 10 years.
The first artist (to my knowledge) to master the use of Interference paint (Titanium
coated mica particles).
In doing so, he has created magical luminous
abstractions that shimmer, glow and change color with the changing light.
Brilliant.
Rainer Gross
Currently with 4 Museum shows in Germany.
His paintings are born with a kiss. That is, he lays down his paint on a canvas
and presses another to it, thereby creating a second painting from the first.
These velvet textured dopplegangers are like explorations of the surface of some
strangely colorful and beautiful planet.
Isa Genzken
A sculptor whose work I’ve been following for quite some time. Her work
is almost always architectural, and always emotional.
Her series of concrete monuments or memorials remind us of the world after a
war or other disaster, the remnants between the end and the new beginning.
Imi Knoebel
Certainly the most well known of this group, yet, I was staggered by the simple
grace and beauty of this series of prints. They are indeed “Portraits”,
as each has it’s own identity and personality.
Not an easy accomplishment when all you are working with are colors and shapes.
Sabine Friesicke
Hers is a perfect combination of precision and chance.
The horizontal lines are painted freehand, the vertical lines are the result
of the horizontal lines dripping.
What we end up with are wonderful paintings that are
painstakingly obsessive and contain a quality of shifting light that could rival
Agnes Martin.
Paul Roxi
In Hamburg I came across the work of this artist. This is clearly visceral art,
art that
comes from the gut.
Clearly European, and clearly unique.
His are beautifly ugly paintings, with the energy sometimes found in a Georg
Baslitz.
These works come from a creatively restless mind that leave you wanting to see
more.
