calendario eventi  :: 

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14/1/2011

Two exhibitions

Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam

Sven Kroner
The Air Was Magic When We Played

Sven Kroner (Kempten, Germany, 1973) is a painter. Today as always, it is quite common for painters to specialise in a particular genre for part of their career – sometimes for a lifetime. From this perspective, Sven Kroner could be classified as a landscape painter. But while such a label may make it easier to discuss his approach to certain genre-specific problems (such as the control of spatiality and unity of colour), it could all too easily obscure the more essential point − that Kroner is not in the business of painting more or less romantic landscapes. One only need take a closer look at his work to see that for all his interest in depicting landscapes – most notably areas that defy human efforts at cultivation – this interest is of secondary importance. In his work, he concerns himself with the fundamental challenges of painting in general. His primary focus is not on rendering landscapes, but on ordering shapes and colours, and on creating an arc of tension in the composition.

The numerous narrative elements, such as the abandoned streets and shacks, illuminated windows and people – or animals – observing the landscape contribute appreciably to the generally mildly melancholy mood of the images. If one is content, as a viewer, to see the effect of isolated motifs on the atmosphere, or to ponder the revelation of the ideas and thoughts that may possibly be inferred from these motifs, one may well overlook the fact that Kroner does not paint because he has something to say, but tells a story because he wants to paint. Kroner’s images frequently refer to the Allgäu of his youth and his current surroundings, because he knows these landscapes and the motifs they contain so well. But when we study his paintings, it becomes clear that what matters to him is not these allusions as such, but the scope they open up for shaping his paintings. The ordering of shapes and colours, and the arc of tension in the composition, are achieved through representation. Kroner is able to demonstrate the human dimension of certain apparently abstract problems of painting. So it is only in the light of this effort that the true significance of the motifs he depicts becomes clear. None of this is new – it puts us in mind of ‘The Months of the Year’ series by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. But such resonances may actually – although there is no space to go into this here – make it all the more interesting.

[From: Sven Kroner, A Painter, by: Sander J. Dekker]

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Theun Govers
Untitled

Giotto, Hokusai, Gustav Klimt and Rachel Whiteread. The frame of reference used by the young Dutch painter Theun Govers is diverse, to put it mildly. His style, on the other hand, is clear and individualistic. On the basis of a personal, spatial logic, Govers creates abandoned, frequently dark, spaces. In them, reality appears to have been banished, literally painted out, or to be visible merely in between the many grid lines.

Govers’s paintings consist of architectural patterns. Lines, surfaces, rasters and their perspectival division evoke three-dimensionality and appear to function in their own right. The patterns act as corners of spaces; perspective transforms a cube into an interior. Govers’s compositions are reinforced by, and go hand in hand with, his working methods and use of materials: he paints exclusively on panels, made of triplex, MDF or wooden planks. This enables him to carry on sanding, and adding or removing layers of varnish, to the very last moment. Likewise, it is not exceptional for Govers to dismantle his works when they appear finished and to reassemble the separate planks to make a new painting. He combined boards in this way to make the grid for the work Untitled from 2010, with a veiled reference to Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. As often applies in Govers’s work, the result produces a certain calm and acquiescence, yet accompanied by tension. In a literal sense, tension exists between the use of materials, between the different layers in the work. But there is also tension generated by the few references to the outside world, the implied presence of human beings. In spite of the frequently mundane nature of these references, such as a bed or party streamers, in the context of the painting they acquire a strange, uneasy quality, and seem out of place.

The geometrical spaces created by Theun Govers lay bare the rules of illusion that govern the painting, but at the same time they conceal a secret that will not easily reveal itself.

[LC]

Image: Sven Kroner, Pfutzen, 2006. Acrylic on canvas 160 x 260 cm

Galerie Fons Welters
Bloemstraat 140, 1016 LJ Amsterdam
Opening hours:
Tuesday - Saturday, 13 - 18 pm

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