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until 29.03. | #3789ARTatBerlin | Michaela Helfrich Galerie presents from 17. February 2023 the exhibition Suitcase of memories with selected paintings by the artists Ulrike Pisch, Alan Rankle, Elena Tamburini and Gerard Waskievitz. Another “Vernissage Chapter 2” to this exhibition with new works will take place on 18 March 2023.
Painting as Memory
Text: Gerhard Charles Rump
Gerard Waskievitz explores the hidden dimensions governing the aristic world, caught between superficial reality and the necessary counterweight creation of a new, parallel world, which we are wont to perceive as art.(…) We do not look at the world, we look at a parallel world, a painted world, the world of art, with all its own laws and rules and regulations, processes and so forth. We cannot separate our visual experience from the recognition of what it is that we see.
Gerard Waskievitz, Marlis, 2008, Oil on canvas, 200 x110 x 4cm
It is more than the commonly quoted „what you see is what you get“ – it is definitely „what you see is much more than you hoped for“(…). No matter whether an attitude is becoming form, or artistic form is generated by concocting seemingly contradictory statements of fact, of imagination, of poeticalness, a striking image always prevails in his artistic production. We usually beam three different kinds of focus on anything we want to understand. It is the informational, the stylistic, and the aesthetic focus.
Alan Rankle, Turner in Hastings, 2017, Oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm
The informational focus is dealing with the stories we are told, if we are told any story, which is not always the case, the stylistic focus deals with matters of style, which means that we look for characteristics distinguishing the work in question from others, like a poem from a news item in the paper, and lastly the aesthetic focus tells us everything we need to know about how something is made, thus providing a glimpse into the aesthetic cosmos and into the relations of the characteristics of production to any other system of lofty thoughts, like all kinds of historical, literary, and artistic references, quotations, and more of that kind.
Ulrike Pisch, Bright Days, 2021, Oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm
So a certain kind of painting, a certain method of applying paint to canvas, can constitute a historical reference, an invocation of the emotional and social and aesthetic preferences of a painter or even a whole era, which in this case then this would constitute a kind of reconstruction. Understanding what kind of reconstruction is going on, is a longish process of repeated and intensive dialogue with the work.
Gerard Waskievitz, Paris Bar Berlin, 2019, Oil on canvas, 120 cm x 160 cm, Photo Roland Behrmann
In the philosophies of Eastern Europe we often find an attitude that says that a clear thought is a small thought and that a clear thought is a thought that hasn’t been thought through to its very end. Of course this indicates the fact that the more you know about a subject, the more questions arise, and it also indicates the growing critical complexity of things in this world, whether we encounter them in real life, in analysing the universe, or, as a matter of fact, in art.
Ulrike Pisch, Kleine Oper, 2022, Oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm
In Gerard Waskievitz’s paintings, we walk through a wonderland world, which shows us that there are many, many hidden dimentions. We take a stroll down memory lane, but we are also, every now and then, touching a kind of foreboding, a sudden vision of hell or paradise, alarm bells ringing telling about changes to come.The paintings will thankfully indicate the paths to follow in order to arrive at understanding main station, at recognition, but things don’t come easy. Why should they? It’s not written in any book. And this contributes to the fascination of his art.
Vernissage Chapter 1 (Preview): Friday, 17 February 2023, 5:00 – 9:00 pm
Vernissage Chapter 2: Saturday, 18 March 2023, 5:00 – 9:00 pm
Exhibition dates: Friday, 17 February – Wednesday, 29 March 2023
To the gallery
Image Caption Cover: Gerard Waskievitz, Trespass, 2022, oil on canvas, 200 x 220 x 4 cm
Exhibition Suitcase of memories – Michaela Helfrich Galerie | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin
