PRESS RELEASE

Markus Weggenmann

Twist and Shout

November 17, 2007 – February 2, 2008

The Gallery will be seeing a burst of colour and life in a new exhibition of selected lacquer paintings by Markus Weggenmann, works such as Sommersprossen first shown in 2005, which strike an impression in intensive, vibrant colour. Born in 1953, in Singen/Hohentwiel, Markus Weggenmann now lives in Zürich and Berlin; this will be his second dedicated exhibition at fiedler contemporary. These paintings began as gouache works in small format communicating the colour of outward and inward sensitivity, purveying memories of the moment meandering through this boldly spontaneous painting style. The final product is a style detached from all texture in several intermediate steps, while the texture still appears in the painting in reflection form due to the nature of the technique.

The exhibition will centre on five monumental panels painted with car body paint at 193 x 143 cm in format (No. 336–340). These works show bands of colour turned, twisted, enmeshed, and entwined on monochrome backgrounds or at close quarters, where the figure and background become indistinguishable, mesmerising the viewer. The sharp, powerful colour atmosphere exudes the gusto of the painter in working with colour, along with his deep expertise of the nature of colour and its composition.

This series of works was preceded by an astonishingly relaxed series of paintings displayed at Bremerhaven Kunsthalle Arts Hall last summer. Their somewhat reserved colour atmosphere, giving protection to the tangle of lines it ushers in, is mirrored in some of the works exhibited in the third room, much smaller landscape-orientation formats at 70 x 80 cm (No. 331, 332, 335). Placed next to these works, a crescendo of selected, richly coloured compositions that derive their bold visual expression by superimposing various shapes, often enhanced in their visual expression by complementary and secondary colour contrasts. Their counterpart can be found in two high-contrast, minimalist black-and-white works (No. 326, 327), which might not seem to belong to the rest at first glance, but do belong to this series at closer examination.

Twist and Shout – the name that Markus Weggenmann has given the exhibition – places the untitled individual paintings into the personal context of the exhibition. Having grown up with the Twist, his use of the Beatles’ worldwide hit song title sets his paintings in an atmosphere of gyrating movement and a loud, lively attitude to life. The result is a synaesthetic experience yielding a new dimension in painting.

This transposition from the visual perception of a painting to another form of perception is one particular aim of Markus Weggenmann, and can be seen reflected in the carpet work that complements the style of his works. This partial deletion of creative origin in the unique woollen works is mirrored in the lacquer paintings, where the painter leaves the final touches to specialists. Everything revolves around the work of the artist into a very unsentimental – but not unemotional – form, preventing any form of comfy living-room atmosphere from developing in this vibrant show of colour and form.

Astrid Näff