until 30.08. |#3516ARTatBerlin | Galerie Dittmar shows from 6 July 2022 the exhibition with works by the artist Rudolf Englert.
Rudolf Englert (1921-1989) developed his formal language in parallel to other similar movements, such as ZERO, but largely independently. Systematically developed groups of works, primarily on paper, were created in dense succession. Englert’s special position within the avant-garde movements was recognised internationally by leading art historians and museums at an early stage. In the seventies the compositions became more complex and pictorial. The written character as well as the echoes of musical notations, which became apparent early on, became more prominent. Against the background of the re-evaluation of the image and the medium of paper in the 1970s, the importance of Rudolf Englert, who participated in this development in many ways, also becomes apparent.
On the centenary of Englert’s birth last year, the Museumsquartier Osnabrück showed an extensive exhibition accompanied by a catalogue. It illustrated the position of the work in comparison with related currents of the time. The new publication presents the important groups of works and also offers, in addition to an essay by Erich Franz, a detailed annotated biography, taking into account diverse, often as yet unexplored documentary material, work-related statements and meaningful opinions on the artist. It allows Englert’s persona to emerge more clearly and provides a variety of indications for his work, the innovative approach as well as the importance attached to the work.
A publication with 176 pages and 127 illustrations was published to accompany the exhibition of Rudolf Englert (1921-1989). An introductory essay by Prof. Dr. Erich Franz is followed by a detailed biography with commentary, which was made possible by access to the artist’s estate and the evaluation of archival material that has largely not yet been made accessible. It allows Englert’s personality to emerge more clearly and provides a wide range of information on his work, his innovative approach and the importance attached to him. The extensive picture section with the important groups of works is structured by meaningful work-related statements on the artist.
Georges Brassens, 1980, Tusche auf Papier, 58 x 43 cm (4, 11.3.1980)
The work shows “that Englert is a deeply committed artist, an extremely sensitive painter who, away from the din of the organised art business, strives to make visible the rhythm of time and of his own existence. […] The result of such constantly new efforts to explore the wholeness of content and form are pictures whose expressive intensity quickly reveals itself to the attentive viewer. And fascinated, one follows the rhythm of lines, strokes and dots, apparently subject to a compelling regularity, which, crowding together and detaching from each other again, are joined into a lively order and give information about the exciting process of the creation of the picture, inspired equally by spirit and feeling.”
Englert “loves black and white, drawing and graphics. […] One thinks of the leaves of a score, and a musical rhythmic feeling may participate in his works. But drawing is drawing and not music. There are pictures in Paul Klee’s work that he calls ‘Pflanzenschrift’ (plant writing); Englert could title his works in a similar way, emphasising the architectural or the musical, the scriptural or the vegetative. There’s all that with him and more.”
Will Grohmann, 1964
“Can I write what I paint? Do I know what I am doing when I paint? I paint! I can’t write what I paint!”
Rudolf Englert, 1967
Exhibition dates: Wednesday, 06. July – Tuesday, 30.August 2022
To the Gallery
Image caption: Rudolf Englert, Ibiza, 1987, Ink on paper, 23 x 32 cm (8, 1978)
Exhibition Rudolf Englert – Galerie Dittmar | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin