Maike Gräf, Thomas Putze, Detlef Waschkau – Sex. Stadt. Leben.
05.05. – 19.08.2017
back to overviewStadtluft macht frei. Das mittelalterliche, immerwährende Glücksversprechen verbindet sich mit ökonomischer Mechanik und lässt die Städte bis heute unaufhörlich wachsen. Weltweit leben über die Hälfte aller Menschen in der Stadt, in Europa sind es schon zwei Drittel.
Die Ausstellung in der Stern-Wywiol Galerie zeigt drei künstlerische Sichtweisen auf die Lebensform unserer Zeit. Maike Gräf, Thomas Putze und Detlef Waschkau entwickeln aus dem alten Bildhauermaterial Holz und der klassischen Figuration jeweils eine sehr eigene, dezidiert zeitgenössische Formensprache, in der sie die Grundthemen moderner Gesellschaften verhandeln. Sie finden ihre Motive im Spannungsfeld zwischen Massenkultur und Individualität, Freiheit und Begrenzung, Perfektion und Versehrtheit. Sie formen daraus drei Bildwelten, jede für sich schlüssig und jede im Kontakt mit den anderen – ein emotional und intellektuell aufregender Kommentar in der Stern-Wywiol Galerie zum 21. Jahrhundert als dem Zeitalter der Städte.
Maike Gräf schöpft aus großstädtischen Kunstformen wie Comic-Strip, Manga und Graffiti und verhandelt die klassischen Themen Leben, Liebe und Tod.
Thomas Putze kombiniert klassisch aus dem Holz geschnittene Holzfiguren mit Weggeworfenem und Unbrauchbarem und reflektiert gesellschaftliche Fragen wie Individualität, Konsum und Lebenssinn.
Detlef Waschkau erzählt in seinen farbigen Holzreliefs von der permanenten Transformation der Großstädte und erzeugt mit der Verbindung von strengem Rasterplan und Schnappschuss-Perspektive inhaltliche und formale Spannung.
What makes an artist unique, what are the differences in their artistic products, apart from the different themes and materials they deal with?
In my opinion, it is above all the gaze. Art always makes us aware of a fundamentally important aspect of our perception:
We can only see subjectively - and actually, objectivity is impossible in all other sensory experiences as well.
As far as the human eye is concerned, Leonardo da Vinci already remarked that it is only moderately well suited for seeing in purely technical terms. From modern physiology of perception we know today that our brain is decisively involved in the process of seeing. Our brain constantly compares the information coming in through the eye with already stored and above all evaluated perceptual experiences. This is then what we think we see. Perhaps you know this when you are travelling and see a place for the first time, completely unprepared, without any previous knowledge. Then we are completely caught up, euphoric, feel somehow new and young. Unfortunately, such moments are rare in life. But there is a remedy - art!
On the theme of SEX.CITY.LIFE, we present the work of three artists who have a lot in common. Maike Gräf, Thomas Putze and Detlef Waschkau all work figuratively. They work with wood as a raw material. And they work in the third dimension. Their theme is modern man with all his flights of fancy, limitations and dreams. The result of their work is very different. This is due in particular to their gaze, which perceives the same subject in completely different facets and arrives at completely different assessments.
Maike Gräf
Maike Gräf's view of the world is one that perceives the big picture. In the triad of her themes of life-love-death, she is interested in that which never changes and yet always bears new features. Her figures stand above everyday life, they have a mythical dimension, indeed, they are often to be understood as allegories. The artist often refers to canonical works of art history and uses them to address contemporary issues.
Ex. "Venus": refers to the painting "Birth of Venus" by Botticelli, which in turn refers to a famous ancient sculpture. Both the ancient and the Renaissance Venus are examples of the Venus pudica, the bashful Venus. Maike Gräf's Venus adopts the classical pose, but she uses her hands very actively. She knows what is good for her and she does it. At the same time she is turned towards others, friendly, self-confident, neither lascivious nor shameless, does not want to hide. Venus is historically a symbol of beauty and spiritual love. In Maike Gräf's work, she is also a symbol of female love (and of herself, as a prerequisite for loving others).
Formally, Maike Gräf's art is decidedly metropolitan. It refers quite naturally to manga, comics, graffiti, expressionism, cubism, is understood in Europe as well as in Asia, America, Europe- Her works are classic and old at the same time.
Thomas Putze
His gaze is directed at the neglected details of our world, the peripheral, the discarded, the useless. And so he is much more frugal in his choice of materials than Maike Gräf. He doesn't need half a tree trunk, he makes art out of everything. Seen in this light, Thomas Putze is definitely an artist of the city, because there is the most diverse rubbish here. He appropriates the world from a, if you will, humble perspective. His love is for those who have to struggle through life, the fighters and the inventive - his theme is man as a social being. It is always about interaction, about the relationship of people to each other (see "Receiver"), who have to share a limited space (STADT).
"24 hours... in the life of a customer" can be understood as the different identities that individuals have when they roam our huge commodity-wonder-world as consumers. And, not to forget, the wonderful "snow leopard" who elicits a smile from every man and especially every woman: he wants attention, wants to show what he has to offer in the battle of the sexes. He always gives everything in life, does not spare himself, and yet only wants what everyone wants, LOVE.
Maike Gräf's gaze is directed at the general, the super-personal, the symbolic. Thomas Putze looks for the expression of the big picture in the small details. And Detlef Waschkau?
Detlef Waschkau
He is a sculptor and painter at the same time. Born in Hanover in 1961, he has been based there since his art studies in Berlin and regularly travels long distances.
He roams the world's big cities and megacities with his camera at the ready, letting himself be overwhelmed by the impressions on the streets. His gaze looks for what is typical of a city as well as what is special. He rarely fixes on a detail and always seems to perceive everything at once, the large structures as well as the shopping bag of the woman in front of him on the zebra crossing. At home in the studio, he sifts through vast quantities of photos and finds the images that come closest to his intention. Then the work on the relief begins:
1. he applies an abstract coloured painting with a brush to the smooth wooden panel as if it were a canvas - in an intuitive gesture or already hinting at the later pictorial structure.
Then he sketchily lays the drawing of the picture on top. 3.
3. he lays a vertical grid over the whole, wide or narrow, calm or moving, regular or loosely rhythmic.
4. he knocks out one field with the chisel and leaves it standing. 5.
5. the other fields are developed, colour is used repeatedly, which is partly taken away again in the next step, some fields also remain in their original condition
6. the working area becomes smaller and smaller until the picture is finally put to the test once more and is completed at some point.
The interesting thing about Detlef Waschkau's street scenes is that they are so interesting. After all, they do not show spectacular views, they are neither exotic nor unusual. They speak to us immediately because they show a very widespread view - that of the snapshot, taken en passant, at a height of about 1.75 metres. We are right in the middle of the action, because we know this perception, our brain has stored it and it connects with the work of art in front of us and makes us actors in the street scenes depicted.
DW breaks this learned experience by showing us not a photo but a multi-layered, gridded relief. He interweaves different spatial levels with each other, places filigree structures next to abstract colour gestures. The first intuitive brushstroke stands on an equal footing with the photographically exact image. And that is what is so fascinating, so exciting about these works. We can sense that all levels of perception are equally important, that they exist simultaneously.
In front of these works, we can feel the fascination of the city as a living space. We feel the diversity of impressions and the energy of the people unfolding against the background of the built environment. The strict grid of the pictures reflects the narrowness of the big city. At the same time, the grid allows for this wide formal range of artistic means, this juxtaposition of pure emotion and technical necessity. Freedom and limitation, individuality and mass, creative cluster and engulfing juggernaut - all this is what the city means, all this is what makes up our life here.
Conclusion: There is a saying in the Philippines: the more truths there are, the better. There is no one truth. We should distrust the proclaimers of the one truth on principle, consider other truths and draw our own conclusions. Art exemplifies this principle, and that is why it is so enormously important for us.
Dr Kathrin Reeckmann