Dieter Balzer, Jürgen Paas, Willi Siber – Farbrausch

Die drei Künstler Dieter Balzer, Jürgen Paas und Willi Siber haben vieles gemeinsam. Sie arbeiten abstrakt. Sie verwenden industriell gefertigte Materialien wie PVC-Bänder, MDF-Platten und Stahlformen, Spezial-Folien und Pulverlacke, die sie zweckentfremdet und in handwerklicher Perfektion einsetzen. Sie experimentieren abseits der Funktionalität mit den spezifischen Eigenschaften der Materialien und stellen die ästhetische Komponente in den Vordergrund. In diesem Aufwertungsprozess agieren alle drei Künstler verschwenderisch mit dem Einsatz von Farbe.

In der Auseinandersetzung mit der Wechselwirkung von Farbe, Form, Oberfläche und Licht kommen sie jedoch zu ganz unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen – vom intellektuellen Dialog bis zur emotionalen Überwältigung – und bereichern so den Diskurs der grenzenlosen Skulptur heute.

Die Stern-Wywiol Galerie stellt in der Ausstellung Farbrausch Dieter Balzer erstmals vor und zeigt neue Werke ihrer Galeriekünstler Jürgen Paas und Willi Siber.

Dieter Balzer steht in der Tradition der konkreten Kunst. Er zerschneidet MDF-Platten und konstruiert daraus streng geometrische, architektonisch anmutende Objekte für Wand und Raum. Sie heißen Horizontale, Orthogonale oder Konjunktion. Diese beklebt Dieter Balzer mit Farbfolien, die in ihrer Passgenauigkeit die Verstrebungen der MDF-Konstruktionen zwar nachbilden, diese in ihrer Farbigkeit aber konterkarieren. Das Eigenleben der Farbe hebt so die Materialität des Objekts auf und überführt den Gegenstand ins Geistige, Konkrete.

Jürgen Paas stellt seine neue TARGET-Serie vor. Farbige PVC-Bänder fügen sich spiralförmig aneinander zu plastischen Wand- und Bodenobjekten. Grundsätzlich dem Minimalismus verhaftet, bleibt Jürgen Paas in der Form stets klar und geometrisch. Zusätzlich verleiht er dem Objekt aber in der Farbigkeit malerische Qualitäten, die ins Psychedelische gleiten. Der Gegenstand wird gleichzeitig mit psychologischen wie technischen Assoziationen verknüpft und so inhaltlich aufgeladen.

Willi Siber arbeitet mit Spezial-Lacken und Pigmenten, Industriestahl und Epoxidharz. Seine Formen scheinen jenseits physikalischer Gesetze zu schweben. Sie lassen Wachstum und Bewegung assoziieren und bringen die Farbe zu maximaler Wirkung. Die Farbe führt ein Eigenleben und ist absolut gesetzt – inhaltlich wie formal. Die technisch schier unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten des HiTec-Industriezeitalters verbinden sich mit Elementen aus Pop, Postmoderne und Dekonstruktion zu einer ebenso ungewöhnlichen wie verführerischen Mischung.

For a few weeks now, I have been offered an interesting view every day on the S-Bahn:

I travel through a very beautiful district of Hamburg, where individual houses are embedded in abundant greenery. The railway line has been there for almost 150 years and so over time all the houses have aligned themselves with its course. Without exception, all the houses stand parallel to the tracks. Now the pressure to build in Hamburg is enormous and older, average houses are increasingly being demolished and replaced by new ones. They are always larger than their predecessors and the permeability between the houses decreases. This certainly makes economic sense, but aesthetically it is very boring. And now the interesting view: A small single house is replaced by a much larger cube with flats, the plot now looks small. BUT: The cube dances out of line! It leaves the old scheme and stands in the row offset by maybe 15-20 degrees, breaking the symmetry. It becomes mobile and appears lighter than it is. It offers different lines of flight than the houses to its right and left. That makes it dynamic, it makes it interesting. Because our brain hates monotony and craves variety. It wants to work, develop and try out new perspectives.

And it is precisely this circumstance, you guessed it, that Dieter Balzer makes use of in his art.

Dieter Balzer constructs complex three-dimensional objects from the most reduced raw materials imaginable - from MDF kanth wood and light-fast special foil - and from the aesthetic ingredients of line, right angle and smooth colour.
Balzer uses the simplest basic geometric forms, starting from the square as the archetype of minimalist/concrete art.

- repeatedly layered on top of each other, mirrored, rotated
- again and again composed of different colours
- b/w as orientation points

- plays with surface and space
- colours dematerialise the space
- Interstices and shadows create the space

Dieter Balzer does not abstract anything that exists in material reality, he materialises something spiritual - principles such as variation, rhythm, colour.

With all this, you don't need any special art education to begin with:
Your brain will get into high gear when you try to understand the interweaving of the construction, the interaction of the colours.

In the comparison of proportions and colour values, half the history of art is running in the background and you learn much more than you suspect.
Come back 5 more times or look at the works from your sofa - you won't be able to reproduce them and you will always discover new connections.

Dieter Balzer works out his designs on the PC with millimetre precision
he would be doomed to failure or would need months to complete a work if he were to create such complex and balanced microcosms solely intuitively at the workbench:

Dieter Balzer
came into contact with this kind of microcosm as a young man. He was born in 1959 in Neuhofen in the Palatinate and grew up in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, where the Wilhelm Hack Museum is located 200 metres from his high school. This museum has an excellent collection of geometric-abstract art with works by, for example, Malevich, Mondrian and Max Bill. It was here that the young Dieter Balzer got his first inkling of what the art of reduction might be all about. He then studied philosophy and art history in Heidelberg and art in England and Norway and lives as a freelance artist in Berlin. He exhibits in museums, art societies and galleries, has a loyal following in New York and we are sure that we will be able to inspire the Hamburgers for him as well.

Jürgen Paas is already well known to Hamburgers from his solo exhibition here at the gallery two years ago.

The exhibition title FARBRAUSCH is to be taken quite literally with his latest works, the TARGETS.

Our eye is physiologically incapable of perceiving spirals as a static arrangement of lines. From the stimuli supplied, our brain automatically creates a circular movement, it creates its own reality. In the past, LSD was used for such excursions, but here we can do it without any risk.

JP adds his colours to this reality, which he selects beforehand in a certain colour family, a certain overall sound.

In the working process, he then builds the TARGETS from the outside inwards in an intuitive working process, allows himself to be driven to some extent by the work itself and also gives in to spontaneous ideas.

Like Dieter Balzer, he works with industrially produced raw materials, here they are coloured PVC tapes.

Also on show is the new series of drumsticks. Classic painting on plywood. Could become a new series of works. Some people can hear paintings - I'd be curious to see what's being played here.

Maybe it's the toot for his approaching 60th birthday! To mark the occasion, an exhibition tour will start next year through numerous art associations, museums and galleries.

Jürgen Paas has asked me to tell you the following about his works:

You are welcome to touch them, you can try to turn them and
you are welcome to dance barefoot on the floor work --------.
WHEN THEY ARE AT YOUR HOME


Last but not least, I would like to draw your attention to the work of Willi Siber, who unfortunately cannot be in Hamburg today and sends you his warmest regards.

His new floor objects live up to the title of the exhibition. In contrast to Dieter Balzer and Jürgen Paas, who could be described as constructivist concrete artists or minimalists, Willi Siber could perhaps be aptly described as the baroque pop artist. From the simplest of basic shapes - in this case circles - and industrially produced lacquer surfaces, he creates objects that seem as if he had made them very quickly and intuitively by hand. The colours - they are chrome and interference paints used in the car industry - have something overwhelming about them. It almost seems as if the shapes are there just to make the colours work. Siber's subject is beauty that exists for its own sake. His theme is our need for light and movement - in other words, for positive energy.

I wish you this positive energy this evening as you tour our exhibition.