On paper of different textures, spaces unfold in soft tones. With – and in – and through landscapes. Is there such a thing as a quiet landscape? NEBELLEBEN (Fog-Life) is the name of the solo exhibition by German artist Georg Fuchssteiner, who received the Art Prize of the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 2018. Drawings, watercolors, gouaches, and collages from the last two years can be seen in the gallery. The exhibition title NEBEL-LEBEN can be read both forwards and backwards – a palindrome.
Here a murmur. From earthy shades of ochre and hard rocks into unreachable mountains. There, twilight drenches mossy satin upholstery in an unreal light. Its “violet so violently moist, as though it were the complementary color of the sun” (1). Forest, clouds, sea, horizon. Haze. Seemingly out of nowhere, lines grow from fine-pored paper fibres. Constellations of pictorial elements awaken memories in us that we do not yet know. Together they explore the surfaces, eliciting innermost secrets. Encounters with reunions. A hasty farewell, whose glistening tears in the corner of an eye reveal everything. Contemplation in quiet isolation.
The eye scans the work at its own individual pace. Every part of the picture’s surface is treated equally. No cast shadows, but perspectives. Not one, but many. The viewer lingers – puts together what hasn’t fallen apart, and still perceives (therefore and not only) the autonomy of individual elements. Time is suspended. “This activity is called painting and it requires imagination and skill with the hands in order to do justice to the simplest task of seeing things that are hidden behind natural things, and then to grasp them with the hand so they become fully palpable, although they do not actually exist in this way.” (2)
Text: Felicitas Kirgis
(1) Rilke, Rainer Maria: Briefe über Cézanne, Frankfurt a. M., 1952, p. 15.
(2) Cennino Cennini, in: Handbuch des Kunsthandwerks.