JÖRG IMMENDORFF
Galerie Michael Werner
Märkisch Wilmersdorf, Alte Parkstraße 3c - Trebbin
07.04.2014 - 31.05.2014
Galerie Michael Werner is pleased to present its first exhibition of works by Jörg Immendorff (1945-2007) since the gallery moved to its new location in Märkisch Wilmersdorf. The exhibition focuses on the late work of the artist and features smalland large-format paintings and drawings made between 2000 and 2004.
Jörg Immendorff’s late work is characterized by an intense engagement with painting, an issue the artist discussed stylistically and through recurring motifs. Brushstrokes are clearly visible and sometimes end in the middle of the painting. Different figures and objects are steeped in — and connected with — a spotted ornament, void of any threedimensionality. Form and colour are the center of the artist’s attention.
Furthermore, Immendorff has placed brush, palette, and echoes of his former teacher Joseph Beuys between motifs of his initial period (such as the Lidl-baby). Nevertheless, the strong contour lines, once indicative of the work of Immendorff, have vanished. The baby is stylized to a voluminous mass which is contoured with a soft-edged, bright band. The figure seems to glow, to waft. Elements are situated into a nearly monochromatic background, or in a marshy landscape where people and airplanes sink or claws rise up.
These images do not tell of any historical events, “the narrative lametta” – as the artist deemed it during an interview in 2000 – has disappeared. Instead the images are reflecting the artist’s state of mind: black caterpillar-like cocoons, rooms shrouded in darkness, rambling briars almost curtaining the pictorial representation, dead tree stumps, people whose views are blocked by veils or by blindfolds.
Associations to physical constraints and anxiety are awakened by these images, but sometimes these connotations are refracted. The watercolour painting “Supracyclin” (2000) refers to a medicine that helped Immendorff who, by 2000, had already become seriously ill. Here, it is depicted in the form of a door whose crack brings a ray of light into the darkness.
“Last Self Portrait 4” (2000) shows the artist sitting in front of a window and looking hopefully into the light blue sky.
Already during his years of study, Jörg Immendorff struggled with the arts and the artist’s existence, a struggle oscillating between political activism and the art market. The artist’s late work reflects that conflict but without any narrative impetus. Immendorff’s attention is focused on “art as subsistence and survival equipment“, as he said in 2000.
Jörg Immendorff has been the subject of numerous major exhibitions worldwide, including Kunstmuseum Basel (1979), Museum für Moderne Kunst, Vienna (1991), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1993), Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover (2000), Staatliches Russisches Museum, St. Petersburg (2001), China Millennium Monument, Beijing (2002), Nationalgalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (2005), Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf (2007).
Image: Jörg Immendorff, Ohne Titel, 1999, öl auf leinwand, 120 x 120 cm.
Galerie Michael Werner
Märkisch Wilmersdorf, Alte Parkstraße 3c - Trebbin
07.04.2014 - 31.05.2014
Galerie Michael Werner is pleased to present its first exhibition of works by Jörg Immendorff (1945-2007) since the gallery moved to its new location in Märkisch Wilmersdorf. The exhibition focuses on the late work of the artist and features smalland large-format paintings and drawings made between 2000 and 2004.
Jörg Immendorff’s late work is characterized by an intense engagement with painting, an issue the artist discussed stylistically and through recurring motifs. Brushstrokes are clearly visible and sometimes end in the middle of the painting. Different figures and objects are steeped in — and connected with — a spotted ornament, void of any threedimensionality. Form and colour are the center of the artist’s attention.
Furthermore, Immendorff has placed brush, palette, and echoes of his former teacher Joseph Beuys between motifs of his initial period (such as the Lidl-baby). Nevertheless, the strong contour lines, once indicative of the work of Immendorff, have vanished. The baby is stylized to a voluminous mass which is contoured with a soft-edged, bright band. The figure seems to glow, to waft. Elements are situated into a nearly monochromatic background, or in a marshy landscape where people and airplanes sink or claws rise up.
These images do not tell of any historical events, “the narrative lametta” – as the artist deemed it during an interview in 2000 – has disappeared. Instead the images are reflecting the artist’s state of mind: black caterpillar-like cocoons, rooms shrouded in darkness, rambling briars almost curtaining the pictorial representation, dead tree stumps, people whose views are blocked by veils or by blindfolds.
Associations to physical constraints and anxiety are awakened by these images, but sometimes these connotations are refracted. The watercolour painting “Supracyclin” (2000) refers to a medicine that helped Immendorff who, by 2000, had already become seriously ill. Here, it is depicted in the form of a door whose crack brings a ray of light into the darkness.
“Last Self Portrait 4” (2000) shows the artist sitting in front of a window and looking hopefully into the light blue sky.
Already during his years of study, Jörg Immendorff struggled with the arts and the artist’s existence, a struggle oscillating between political activism and the art market. The artist’s late work reflects that conflict but without any narrative impetus. Immendorff’s attention is focused on “art as subsistence and survival equipment“, as he said in 2000.
Jörg Immendorff has been the subject of numerous major exhibitions worldwide, including Kunstmuseum Basel (1979), Museum für Moderne Kunst, Vienna (1991), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1993), Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover (2000), Staatliches Russisches Museum, St. Petersburg (2001), China Millennium Monument, Beijing (2002), Nationalgalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (2005), Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf (2007).
Image: Jörg Immendorff, Ohne Titel, 1999, öl auf leinwand, 120 x 120 cm.
