Recent Inspiration: Henning Kles

Henning Kles

Found Friday

This photo was my great find at the flea market this last Sunday. It's a big print too - approximately 9x12". It was in with a lot of other photos of this kid and his family in Germany during WWII or shortly after the war. This shot was the best of the bunch.

Simon Cantamir Hausi

installation view from the flog Berlin

Simon Cantemir Hausi

Simon Cantamir Hausi

Simon Cantamir Hausi, Swim in Organized Place, oil on canvas, 150x100cm, 2009

Simon Cantamir Hausi

Simon Cantamir Hausi

Simon Cantamir Hausi, untitled, oil on wood panel, 22x16 cm, 2008

Rain Down

Gerhard Richter, Troisdorf, Oil on Canvas, 33 1/2 by 47 1/4 in., 1985

Lotus Plaza, "Rain Down"

Julian Lee talks about his work

Julian Lee, Vorstadt, Mixed Media on Canvas (135 x 105cm)

I had some recent correspondence with Frankfurt, Germany-based artist Julian Lee that he allowed me to pass on. Keep an eye on his site for new works. I've blogged about Lee's work previously and he told me a little more about it, writing;

"Like most Artists I’m not exactly sure what I paint, as what I think they mean can mean something entirely different to someone else. One of the wonderful aspects of the language of painting.

Roughly speaking though, I just start in the studio painting, mostly from memory, increasingly so, or occasionally using photos as reference points for subjects such as nature, or the way a particular building looked etc.

Then the paintings go through all types of transformations often ending up entirely different as to what I imagined. The hard work comes (as I’m sure you know) in trying to objectively analyze the work as to what level it communicates itself.

As for the content. The closet I can come to clarifying what they are about, is what the great Willem de Kooning once claimed as his slipping glimpses. The moment the minds eye makes a snapshot of a place or situation and stores it away in the subconscious. That first de-bunking vision is something I search for constantly and try to bring into the work.

A lot of people note in my work of a certain kind of angst, or solitude, which I take as my own search for some spiritual understanding of the troubled world we live in today.

I do like to leave the works open to interpretation though..."

Julian Lee

I like these works by Julian Lee:

Julian Lee, "Transit", Mixed Media on Canvas (130x100 cm)

Julian Lee, Untitled, Mixed Media on Canvas (90 x 70 cm)Julian Lee, Untitled(Purple) Mixed Media on Canvas ( 140 x 100cm)


Lee's wooded scene above reminds me of Peter Doig:
Peter Doig, "Concrete Cabin", Oil on Canvas, 198x275cm, 1994

Norbert Schwontkowski

Norbert Schwontkowski, "FLOS", 2007, oil paint on canvas

40.5 x 61 cm / 15 x 24 1/8 "

Norbert Schwontkowski, "The world on time", 2006, oil paint on canvas

200 x 200.4 x 2.5 cm / 78 3/4 x 78 7/8 x 0 "

Norbert Schwontkowski, "Gestern unterwegs", 2006, oil paint on canvas

50.2 x 40.3 x 2.1 cm / 19 3/4 x 15 7/8 x 0 5/6 "

Norbert Schwontkowski, "DER RAND DER SICHTBAREN WELT", 2007, oil paint on canvas
160.6 x 160.6 cm / 63 1/4 x 63 1/4 "

Magnus Von Plessen

Here are some semi-recent paintings from Magnus Von Plessen, a artist I have been enjoying for a few years now. I am fairly certain that all of his brushes or palette knives are flats: I can also say with confidence that Magnus Von Plessen has the coolest name in the art world - I mean you could abbreviate his name to MVP. My initials are "Not Applicable" (NA), but his are MVP - "Most Valuable Player (Most Valuable Painter?)"- there's no comparison.

Magnus Von Plessen, 2006, Oil on canvas, 47.2 x 35.4 inches photo from Kyle Lemstrom

Magnus Plessen, In and out of my shirt, 2006. Oil on canvas; 45.67 x 39.37 inches
Magnus Von Plessen, Untitled, 2006, Oil on Canvas, 110x68"

Minutiae - where you'll find only the most erudite art criticism and commentary.

"Heaven" - Closing Scene

I'll keep with the film theme today, and present to you a very lo-fi recording of my favorite scene in the movie, "Heaven" by Tom Tykwer. This scene mirrors the beginning of the movie in which Giovanni Ribisi's character is flying a helicopter simulator and starts going straight up rather than across the terrain, his instructor says, "Control your height! Easy! You can´t fly like this in real life," to which he replies, "How high can I fly then?"

(forgive the low-quality, the scene is still powerful despite it)



This closing scene was the inspiration for a piece I did a few years ago on paper:


Nathan Abels, "Weight of Air", Acrylic on Paper, 22x30"

Right Round Baby

Caspar David Friedrich, "Woman in Window", Oil on Canvas, 1822, 44 cm × 37 cm
Caspar David Friedrich, "The wanderer above the sea of fog", Oil on Canvas, 1818, 98 cm × 74 cm
Caspar David Friedrich, "Moonrise over the Sea", Oil on Canvas, 1822, 55 cm × 71 cm
Caspar David Friedrich, "Two men contemplating the Moon", Oil on Canvas, 1819, 35 cm × 44 cm
Caspar David Friedrich, "Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon", Oil on Canvas, c. 1830-1835, 34 cm × 44 cm
Images from Wiki Commons

I picked up "Casper David Friedrich and the Subject of Landscape" from the library a couple of days ago and in one section the author accompanied a selection of Friedrich's landscapes that featured a subject(s) looking out onto the landscape with this quote:

"Who has turned us round like this so that we,
whatever we do, have the bearing of
someone who's going away?"

- Rainer Maria Rilke

"Relief, Nay, Liberation"

"How often was I able, even in the later years, to cleanse my innermost soul of dark depression by painting dark fog-shrouded landscapes, snow-covered graveyards, and similar things. Perhaps these pictures appealed to other souls as much in darkness as my own. As for me, they always brought me relief, nay, liberation." - Carl Gustav Carus

Carl Gustav Carus, "Das Kolosseum in einer Mondnacht" (The Colosseum at Midnight"), Oil on Canvas, 1828, 47.5 × 37 cm
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Carl Gustav Carus, "Morning Fog", Watercolor on Paper mounted on Board, 1825, 20x26 cm
Source: Web Gallery of Art


Carl Gustav Carus, "Blick auf Dresden von der Brühlschen Terrasse", Oil on Canvas, 1830-1831, 28.5 × 21.7 cm
Source: Wikimedia Commons

I've been enjoying German Romantic painting lately. I ran across Carl Gustav Carus today while making a brief library visit. He studied under one of my favorite landscape painters - Caspar David Friedrich, so it's no surprise that I enjoy his work as well. Carus wrote that "The chief aim of landscape painting is to present a certain mood of the soul (meaning) by showing a corresponding mood in nature (truth)."

Quotes from German Romantic Painting by Hubert Schrade, 1967