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until 17.06. | #1935ARTatBerlin | Galerie Kornfeld shows from 26th April 2018 the exhibition “Reise nach Georgien” by the artists Natela Iankoshvili and Christopher Lehmpfuhl.
Galerie Kornfeld is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Natela Iankoshvili and Christoper Lehmpfuhl under the heading “Journey to Georgia”. The exhibition shows Georgia as a place of inspiration for two notable artists with radically different perspectives: on the one hand, a contemporary, Berlin-born and resident painter who paints with his bare hands in the open air in a country he has never visited before. On the other hand, a strong woman who lived in Georgia from 1918 to 2007, is considered to be the most significant Georgian artist of the 20th century and who painted the landscapes of her homeland in a distinctive style with powerful brushstrokes on a dark background.
In the summer of 2017, Galerie Kornfeld invited Christopher Lehmpfuhl (* 1972) to a painting trip to Georgia, accompanied by gallery owner Mamuka Bliadze, who assisted the artist as a travel guide and confidant, as he shared his pictures of the Georgian landscape and capital of Tbilisi for him characteristic style painted – the hands full of oil paint, in the open air, in the heat, cold, sun, rain and wind. Christopher Lehmpfuhl painted the various landscapes of the Caucasus, such as the Kasbek, a dormant volcano and one of the highest mountains in Georgia, the monastery Dschwari and the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, all of which symbolize Georgia’s rich and centuries-old history. He also painted in Sighnaghi, a well-known city in the Kachetien wine-growing region, as well as in the capital Tbilisi, a vibrant, modern city with its own long history.
Lehmpfuhl’s creative process is based on the material conditions of the color and its memory of the environment that he paints, thus building on a series of psychological and phenomenological perceptions of perception that developed in parallel to Impressionism and early Proto-Impressionism of the late nineteenth century , Lehmpfuhl’s paintings combine a flair for matter with the immediacy of an expanded mind that simultaneously perceives and imagines it, as well as with the perceived inner image that emerges the first time a motif is viewed. They begin as a percept, as a mental image that is stored and then transposed on-site through the artist’s active finger painting process. In the words of the artist: “Before I begin, I have a memory or an idea, a kind of sketch in my head.” Due to the heavy impasto traces of the oil paint and the large-format canvases, the surfaces of Lehmpfuhl’s paintings bear witness to their origins from the motives they represent. Although the Georgian landscapes and architectural thematic images are filtered through the artist’s focused perception, they are nevertheless recognizable as precisely selected landscape locations.
The artist Natela Iankoshvili (1918-2007) was an icon in her Georgian homeland, her work is considered a national cultural asset. Her work includes atmospheric, sensual and colorful depictions of the characteristic landscapes of her homeland as well as portraits of friends and personalities from her large circle of acquaintances. She was a prolific artist with a life’s work spanning more than 2,000 paintings. Iankoshvili’s unmistakable style is characterized by its dark blacks and greens, as well as by the luminous moments of light emerging from the darkness. References to the paintings of the Blue Rider can be found as well as allusions to such different artists as El Greco or Paul Gauguin.
Natela Iankoshvili: Old Tree, 1967,
Öl auf Leinwand, 70 x 80 cm
In her landscape paintings, powerful forms that are confidently outlined with a few brush strokes on the black background merge into colorful pictures. Figures and landscapes are blooming on the dark background. The tones and colors gradually merge and create roughly outlined shapes that seem to move on the surface of the canvas.
Christopher Lehmpfuhl’s landscape impressions from Georgia, a land alien to him, shift the optical paradigm of Natela Iankoshvili’s perception of Georgia. Iankoshvili and Lehmpfuhl portray the Georgian landscape through exploration of strangeness and what different frames of reference, near or far from home, can produce. Based on this double argument with Georgia, the exhibition shows which new aspects emerge when looking at the home of another through the prism of painting. Based on two opposing views – from Iankoshvili’s homeland as a place of exploration to Lehmpfuhl’s works, which can also be read as a travel diary – the exhibition shows Georgia as a place of discovery.
Christopher Lehmpfuhl: Morgenlicht im Terek-Tal,
2017, Öl auf Leinwand, 100 x 120 cm
Christopher Lehmpfuhl, former master student of Klaus Fußmann at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, has received numerous awards, including a scholarship from the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and the GASAG Kunstpreis Berlin. For the 20th anniversary of the German reunification in 2009, the artist was commissioned to paint the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. His work has been shown in museums and galleries in Germany and abroad, most recently in the Marburg Kunstverein. The exhibition “Palace Square in Transition” is planned for the beginning of 2019 in Berlin and brings together a large number of works dedicated to the demolition of the Palast der Republik and the reconstruction of Berlin’s Stadtschloss.
Natela Iankoshvili studied at the Art Academy in Tbilisi and exhibited her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Georgia, the Soviet Union and abroad. She has received several awards, including the Shota Rustaveli Prize, the most prestigious art award in Georgia. Her works are in prestigious collections, such as the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow or the National Gallery in Tbilisi.
From 3.-6. In May 2018, Galerie Kornfeld will present paintings by Natela Iankoshvili at Frieze New York, the first presentation of her works in the USA.
An 88-page book edited by Wienand Verlag, with an introduction by Mamuka Bliadze, an art history essay by British art historian Mark Gisbourne and color images of all the paintings painted by Christopher Lehmpfuhl during his trip to Georgia, will be broadcast on Thursday, May 24 at 6 pm in the gallery Kornfeld, Fasanenstr. 26 presented in 10719 Berlin.
Special opening times Gallery Weekend 2918
Fri 27 April, 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Sat 28 April, 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
Sun 29 April, 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
Vernissage: Thursday, 26th April 2018, 06:00–09:00 p.m.
Exhibition period: Thursday. 26th April to Sunday, 17th June 2018
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Exhibition Christopher Lehmpfuhl + Natela Iankoshvili – Galerie Kornfeld | Contemporary Art – Kunst in Berlin – ART at Berlin
