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until 01.06. | #4230ARTatBerlin | Galerie Kremers shows from 19. April 2024 the exhibition Retrospektive by the artist Natascha Mann.
Anyone who engages with the art of Natascha Mann (born 1946) is faced with an almost inexhaustible number of works that have been created over a long period of time. In this exhibition, the oldest work of art is 66 years old, the youngest just a few days. Large canvases, watercolors, sculptures, and various prints are on display; the motifs are biblical and mythological – Adam and Eve, Erzulie and fairytale-like – Europa and the Bull, illustrations for Peter Hack’s “Schuhu”. They reflect themes from art history such as the series on “Paintress and Model” and they draw on classical themes from theater and literature – Brecht (Turandot) and Homer (Odyssey). The artist’s attempt to gain a foothold on the other side of the world with her companion resulted in a travel diary in the form of lithographs, etchings, and gouaches (Samoa, Bontok, etc.). In addition to her painting studies in Stuttgart, Natascha Mann also studied dance at the Folkwang University in Essen. Dance is a recognizable central motif in many of her works (dancers).
Image caption: Europe and the bull, 1984, acrylic on canvas, 140 x 280 cm
Is the art of this tremendously creative artist also tremendously feminine? It is certainly not feminist in the sense that it addresses the discriminatory social position of women, for example. Natascha Mann would not allow her pleasure and joie de vivre to be ideologically curtailed, not even in the fight for political equality. But she is feminist in a universal sense. Her art does not judge, nor does it need a lawyer, but gives women justice by placing them directly on the throne. Women play the leading role in Natascha Mann’s work. They stand, sit, or lie at the center and are the directors and agents of the canvas stories. If there are any objects of desire here, they are male. The tables are turned, the female painter feasts on the beauty and lust of her male model and Europe is so large and magnificent that the bull seems to cower next to her, a little shy and helpless. We see beautiful, self-confident women, goddesses, furies, in sensual, baroque, or even drastically pornographic scenes, couples in intimate togetherness and poetic, humorous assemblages. The repertoire is not subject to any limits and does not submit to any direction, trend, opinion, etc. In other words, any authority. Far from following any fashions or guidelines, Natascha Mann is free in her exuberant productivity and a pioneer in the creation of new art forms. Her etchings on Brecht’s plays created in the 1960s – 9 etchings on one page each tell the story of Brecht’s dramas – read like a graphic novel, an art form that had not even been invented at the time… She confidently draws on the reservoir of male cultural achievements without false respect for the classics or fear of quotation to transform her finds with the richness of her creative perception and into her own feminine experience.
Image caption: Market in Yucatan, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 125 x 170 cm
“Painting – a sensual pleasure. Drawing strength – giving strength. Bright blue lake – on it with a thick, soft brush, rich white – scratching traces into it ..Now warm golden ochre next to it; a scrap of cardboard, corrugated, torn, glued into it. A magical red line connects white and gold. Red in blue: flickering, lively. Red on ochre: soothing. Velvety black sets firm signs: defining symbols – or delicately frames what flows away. The dark is too solid, it has to be broken through – a crumpled paper here, a light fibrous line there, just not too much. Too harmonious? A thick flat brush covers large areas in cherry green. An old map – where did it come from? nestles in. Exotic turquoise, cool. Delicate dots of screaming pink. Black meanders through to other islands. Finished. -Each picture is a new experience, the old ones woven in. Where does the path lead? I don’t know. Be open to new things.” Natascha Mann
Opening: Friday, 19. April 2024, 7 – 9 pm
Exhibition dates: Friday, 19. April until Saturday, 1. June 2024
To the Galerie
Image caption: Secret meeting, 2017, mixed media on canvas, 130 x 195 cm
Exhibition Natascha Mann – Galerie Kremers | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin
