Karl Bohrmann
dal 12/12/2006 al 24/2/2007
Segnalato da
12/12/2006
Karl Bohrmann
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Interiors - Exteriors. Drawings 1991-1998. A painter, draughtsman, photographer, and composer of New Music, he left an oeuvre that impressively testifies to his complex approach to art. His drawings and paintings work with cycles and variations and they exist in the fascinating sphere between figuration and abstraction. The artist reflects on the hardly manageable tension between subject and object interlocked with the surrounding space.
Interiors - Exteriors | Drawings 1991-1998
Curator: Michael Semff
A painter, draughtsman, photographer, and composer of New Music, Karl
Bohrmann (1928-1998) left an œuvre that impressively testifies to his
complex approach to art. His drawings and paintings work with cycles and
variations and they exist in the fascinating sphere between figuration and
abstraction. The medium the artist was most passionate about was drawings.
In contrast to Karl Bohrmann's prolific output, the number of themes seems
limited at first: chair, table, window, receptacle, room, house, tree and
female figure. The current exhibition focuses on this group of works he
created in the last years of his life.
In these rarely shown drawings the artist reflects on the hardly manageable
tension between subject and object interlocked with the surrounding space.
Each motif is subjected to variations throughout the large series of
drawings. Time and again Bohrmann varies what actually is the same. And yet
every single drawing is unique, holding a world of its own. Situated in
barely defined realms, all his sujets ultimately turn into landscapes. As it
turns out, it is interior landscapes that Bohrmann brings about in his very
softly, yet determinedly executed pictorial expanses. His lines reveal the
process of their creation and this trait is emphasized by Bohrmann's
reaction to the condition of the paper he uses, often shaped by traces of
use, from having been torn, bent, written on, or stained.
In his written notes Karl Bohrmann permanently commented upon and questioned
his artistic position. Like his drawings these ponderings are surprisingly
simple yet complex. Rarely does Bohrmann formulate categorical
manifestations. Instead, the artist sees himself in the role of someone
searching and questioning (himself), careful always to avoid committing
himself to a particular artistic stance: "Whatever one does must be
questionable, must remain questionable. And yet it must be done as a matter
of course, without hesitating or questioning".
Image: Karl Bohrmann, Red Trees, 1996.
Press information and pictures:
Tine Nehler | Head of Press Office presse@pinakothek.de
Press conference: 13.12.06, 11.00
Pinakothek der Moderne
Kunstareal | Barer Str. 29 - Munich