Exhibition Stefan Bertalan – Esther Schipper

until 08.04. | #3804ARTatBerlin | Galerie Esther Schipper presents from 3. March 2023 the exhibition Ends of Research by the artist Stefan Bertalan, curated by Erwin Kessler. On display are over 50 works on paper from the 1960s to the 2000s, selected by Romanian art historian Erwin Kessler, one of the leading experts on Bertalan’s work.

Stefan Bertalan (1930-2014) was the main figure of research-based, process-oriented and innovative art in Romania. In 1966, together with Roman Cotoșman and Constantin Flondor, he founded the experimental neo-constructivist group 111. After Roman Cotoșman’s escape to the West, another group, Sigma (1969-1982), was founded. Bertalan was the driving force of both 111 and Sigma. The two groups were the most influential and innovative art groups in Romania for decades, shaping the artistic, pedagogical and curatorial practice of generations of young artists and theorists.

Stefan Bertalan, Apfel Bäume, 1999, gouache, pencil and charcoal on paper.
34 x 52 cm (unframed), 54.6 x 72.6 x 4.2 cm (framed)
Courtesy The Estate of Stefan Bertalan and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul, Photo © Jörg von Bruchhausen

Bertalan worked in many media, producing drawings, photographs, installations, actions, environments and happenings, often using innovative materials such as plastic, natural and synthetic fibres, X-ray images and aluminium. Almost ninety per cent of his work, however, is on paper. The works shown in Ends of Research come from various series throughout Bertalan’s creative period. They show the ruptures, but also the impressive continuum of a career that balances between the earlier results of his scientific-looking research (the geometric, abstract perfection of forms and objects) and the later developments of his psycho-political, manic research work, in which he projects himself (as a self-portrait) into the biological-cosmic-fantastic world around him. Ends of Research shows how the exploration of abstract structures slowly opens up to the forms of the outside world and how this then develops into a study of one’s own physiognomy, ultimately leading to the exploration of one’s own body, whose anatomy, however, at times extends into geology and cosmology.

Stefan Bertalan, Untitled (Network), Indian ink on paper
30 x 42 cm (unframed), 48.6 x 60.5 x 4.2 cm (framed)
Courtesy The Estate of Stefan Bertalan and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul, Photo © Jörg von Bruchhausen

At the end of the 1970s, an ecological mysticism entered Bertalan’s investigations. The universal order he sensed behind the far-reaching correspondences between spiritual processes and natural sequences strengthened his belief in an overarching, transcendental communication and harmony: everything could connect with everything, the universal system was a speculative association in the interplay of hidden and revealed properties.

Bertalan’s extensive research works are full of sketches, diagrams and complex calculations, geometric schemes, close observations of plants, rocks, shells, insects, animals, landscapes, but also abstract structures, nightmarish monsters and violent politics. They reconstruct earth and sky, nature, human faith and ethics. Inspired by the pioneering work of systems theory and bionics, he explored the formal relationships between organic and inorganic natural structures, human artefacts and spiritual visions. His aim was to uncover the deep isomorphism between mental, abstract cognitive processes and the natural laws of growth and geometric structures. Bertalan’s portfolios of drawings seem like a scientific-speculative diary, filled with experimental observations, theoretical reflections and political statements. Research was not a means of his art, but its very purpose.

Stefan Bertalan, Untitled, 1984, red chalk, Indian ink, charcoal and ball pen on paper.
46 x 65 cm (unframed), 68.6 x 87.6 x 4.2 cm (framed)
Courtesy The Estate of Stefan Bertalan and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul, Photo © Jörg von Bruchhausen

Ends of Research is an introduction to Bertalan’s fascinating creative research process, his (mystical) ecology and his sharp political critique. The exhibition reveals utopian and modernist ambitions and paradoxes, the limits of reason, perpetual inner and outer emigration, the artist’s status as a daring, vulnerable seeker of absolute perfection, and the strange workings of an indomitable, critical consciousness that preys on itself until the last moments of life. At the same time, the exhibition also points to the political and ethical questions raised by repression, old age and illness. Bertalan is a prime example of the emerging concerns of sustainability and nature conservation in both society and art. His exuberant and ecstatic work is a harbinger of contemporary awareness of a holistic and reciprocal relationship between humans and nature.

Stefan Bertalan, Untitled (Sunflower), 1981, charcoal, red chalk and Indian ink on paper.
32.5 x 46 cm (unframed), 53.1 x 66.6 x 4.2 cm (framed)
Courtesy The Estate of Stefan Bertalan and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul, Photo © Jörg von Bruchhausen

Stefan Bertalan was born in 1930 in Răcăştie, Romania, and died in 2014 in Timişoara, Romania. Stefan Bertalan studied at the “Ion Andreescu” College of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca. From 1962 he was a professor at the College of Fine Arts in Timişoara. From 1970 to 1981 he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering in Timişoara (Department of Architecture).
The artist represented Romania at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995. In 2013, his work was included in the exhibition The Encyclopedic Palace at the Biennale di Venezia, curated by Massimiliano Gioni.
Bertalan’s solo exhibitions include: Ştefan Bertalan, Muzeul de Artă, Timişoara (2012); The SelfPunishing One, Mogosoaia Palace, Muzeul de Artă, Timişoara/ The Bánffy Palace, Cluj-Napoca (2009). Selected group exhibitions include: Things we sense about each other, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (2021); Parliament of Plants, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein (2020); Ex-East. Past and recent stories of the Romanian avant-garde, Espace Niemeyer -Siège du Parti communiste Français, Paris (2019); La Brique, The Brick, Cărămida, La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Mulhouse.
(2019); Dissolve into a red dwarf, Islands, Brussels (2017); He who punishes himself, Bucureşti/ Timişoara/Klausenburg (2009); Speech, Performance Festival Zona 4, Timişoara (2002) and Self-portrait in Contemporary Romanian Art, Timişoara Art Museum (2001).

Opening: Friday, 3 March 2023, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Exhibition dates: Friday, 3 March – Saturday, 8 April 2023

To the Gallery

IMage caption title: Stefan Bertalan, Network, 1973-1974, Coloured pencil on paper, 35 x 50 cm, Photo: Jörg von Bruchhausen

Exhibition Stefan Bertalan – Esther Schipper | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin