Immer mit arger Winfred? with this question Manfred de la Motte, in November 1979, a headline in his written introduction to the catalog of the exhibition at the Gallery of WG Hennemann, Bonn. The text was compliant with the exhibited works of Gaul, but also showed some inconsistencies in consequential work. A strange title, but the two were close friends for a long time, were known since 1955 and in 1957 Manfred de la Motte had written about his works 'informal' and then in 1962, when he became the curator for the exhibition in the Haus am Waldsee Berlin, had invited him to exhibit his paintings in the historic exhibition " Gegenwart bis '62" [News until '62]. Two years later, during the Annual Review of German art which he organized in 1964, had asked him to exhibit outside the entrance of the museum, his Hommage à Berlin, a large work in the series Verkehrszeichen & Signale [Traffic Signs & Signals].
Today in retrospect, many years passed since those stories, and then with a more relaxed I can well understand, even if you do not agree with the reasons and choice, by Manfred de la Motte, of that title [ always irritated with Winfred?]. evidently chose him to defend Gaul against criticism that they were constantly turned on the alleged lack of consistency and consequence in the works. But the reference ended instead to highlight their reaction of surprise, irritation and sometimes, the critics and the public took against the radicalism of the 'poetic', often controversial and uncompromising, with which WG contiguous address the serious and contemporary styling or processing, among his works for this are regarded as 'shameless'. Out some piece of work, receiving many others, made by Gaul in the time, was constantly under the control of the system on the 'issue of consistency'. ( 1)
Young, Gaul, had participated in the "Gruppe 53" in Düsseldorf, the first group of German artists who had gathered under that name to rejuvenate through the'informale ', the art scene and pictorial reconstruction in Germany after the Nazi era and the destruction of the Second World War. They were part of that group many of the artists who then programmed his entire career on the statements and confirmations, Europe as a whole, this style of painting.
But after a few years after that stage, Gaul, had broken away from fellow travelers, and had sought another more suited to his personality. Repeated and wrote constantly, until the last years of his life, this sentence: " I have not decided to become an artist to get bored and annoy the other for life by repeating the same formulas .
Once believed to have closed a cycle, Winfred, was unable to repeat undaunted and continue to paint, with the same style, yet other paintings. Perhaps exceeded it the fear of acting 'ephemeral', vague and fear of producing an art 'sterile' only linked to the production of soulless things, which certainly would not lower its initial energy boost.
This was for him a fundamental principle which has remained strictly faithful to all his life.
also liked to experiment and create too much in the same year, sometimes on the same days, or within a few months apart, two different series, different or opposite of paintings.
would cite examples from many, perhaps as many as were the series of works covering all his artistic production. But it is worth to mention here the two most 'exemplary': the first concerns the double series of paintings made between 1959 and 1961 which Wischbilder [ boards rubbed ] and Farbmanuskripte [ Manuscripts colored ]. (2)
I Wischbilder, as already claimed the title, were staff members 'rubbed', that is a canvas on which to color, not the typical oil painters, but a volatile color, typography used in industrial, was distributed on rubbing with a cloth or cloth and pouring from 'nuages', or in misty clusters, obtained from different passages, to create an impression General monochrome transparency. Whereas in Farbmanuskripte the canvas was covered with tight gestures and thick coils of scriptural scribbles made using wax crayons or oil until the whole surface became a sort of palimpsest compact, full of bustling colorful signs.
The other highlight, such as striking and 'significativo'del his artistic attitude, exploded during the search in the Analytic Painting (1973-1983). Participate at that time along with many other artists, some of his peers as Raimund GIRK, or others of a generation younger than him, but esteemed as a painter was not only rebel against the domination of Art Conceptually, that during those years was raging throughout the Western art world, talk about painting, dogmatic in the '70s, was considered blasphemous. But it was for him above all things, the possibility to realize, as stated by reflecting on Matisse " ... the results [in painting] through the analytical method to get close to perfection again and always trying to say everything in a single line. " (3) It begins in the 1972-73 series of large paintings by the general title of Markierungen [Branding]. After almost 15 years after the series of parallel and simultaneous Wischbilder and Farbmanuskripte of 1959-61, Gaul returns, with a double set adjacent and contemporary, to experience on issues of primary and 'fundamental', analyzing radically 'field', ie on the canvas, the 'disegnare'e the' paint '. And it could get, to be more precise, through two distinct series of works and opposing each other: those of the paintings from the subtitle Zeichenmarkierungen [marking signs] and Farbmarkierungen [Branding Color]. In the series Zeichenmarkierungen promises to analyze different ways with only the method of drawing a line on a surface. To achieve this set uses only charcoal and chalk pastels, drawing with them, freehand, parallel lines the edge of the natural canvas, still raw and unprocessed, just prepared. While in Farbmarkierungen promises to analyze the different possibilities to distribute a single color in order to obtain and varying backgrounds, always parallel to each other on the canvas prepared with the same color diluted. To achieve this new series uses a single color always distributed on the surface of the roller painter. The choice of canvas of linen (Belgium) and primary and minimal gestures of painting or drawing are the revelation of a strong desire to research poverty and simplicity in painting, one might say, 'Franciscan', namely, to strip the paint All glories to make earlier and more humble 'Sincere' (like the novice Brother Francis of Assisi Church with the tried, he tried the side of painting a clear contrast to the contemporary style Shamanic supported by Beuys). Digging with humility and severity in the possibility of operating on a surface, remaining inside the painting 'painted', to highlight the sacredness of the creative craft and make the manual process of painting a discipline of the spirit. This double series of works (painted between 1973-1978) was performed together for the first time in the exhibition created in 1977, on two separate times, in my gallery in Cologne. The first set of Zeichenmarkierungen was shown from March 18 to April 20 while the second set Farbmarkierungen from April 22 to May 18. In a written catalog of Gaul on the intention to work. Some of these paintings were later exhibited in June of that year in the painting section of the "documenta 6 " in Kassel.
Winfred was particularly controversial and reacted with sarcasm when his work was criticized without anyone seeking to understand the need that had as an artist, to turn the corner to go to see beyond the limits of what is, pictorially, had just achieved. Or when, how often did the critics, even those friends, so magnify his series of paintings just introduced, what remained indifferent, or denigrated, the series that followed. Me too, when I asked him questions, he answered that he felt an urgent, necessary, widen the horizon of what he did, or that he had made, and at the same time had the desire to overcome it, to try to know more. I repeated, in opposition to what I believe, that the evolution of the species 'normal' are those who have been discharged, because they stop, while the 'illegal', adapt, survive, and 'normal', not to become extinct , learn from the 'illegal' to find new ways. Each time, easily or with difficulty, managed to make a new series of works the horizon's moved revealing many new areas to explore. He felt an urgent call to investigate them as widely as possible in the immense landscape painting 'abstract'. And this was the real reason that unleashed his 'hunger for pictures'. Add your own testing to the many existing pictorial (spalancatasi immensity to the 800 already, with the first impressionist and abstract art and then it considered a legacy of experience that still apply today) and be able to add to those made by artists who had preceded him of abstraction in painting and regarded as his ancestors had for him as a sink rooted in the history of painting, rather, in the succession of historical paintings by those artists who had preceded him and who were his 'lights'. Participant was to make a single set, a whole and in unison with a history of painting that he had painstakingly identified and that, he understood, have become his. And, indeed, when his ideas were not understood or accepted him as a betrayal against him, evidently, he said, did not even understand all the potential that was already inherent in the series of pictures made previously. Winfred was never an easy or diplomatic nature, or even condescending, especially towards people that esteemed or loved, it was very 'demanding', and sometimes it was just 'annoying', but those who pass this stage and does not dwell only on surface appearances, had the pleasure of discovering a strong personality, passionate, even sarcastic, but honestly and deeply dedicated to 'paint' with all your soul. Like a Zen Master himself claimed to be the greatest intellectual honesty and the proof of compliance with the rules and theories that should be considered viable until their extreme limit, after which it considered that any opening and testing was necessary just to appease the insatiable hunger a painter who, while deeply Painting, I want to discover more fully the possibilities. Of course, as orthodox Monaco was respectful of his religion and his experiments with each painting remained, therefore, always in the flow of painting of abstraction and reflection sull'umile 'mestiere'di painter. But above all, pay close attention when he understood that their research had found a stage beyond which it was useless to go, beyond which everything would become academic repetition. Besides, even his beloved painting was with him 'ruthlessly demanding'; at least that was what he himself would have 'heard' about his 'role' of the creator. In fact, a she came to call it: " Die Malerei ist eine Geliebte eifersüchtige [ Painting is a jealous lover ]. This is the title of an artist's book that he published with Eremiten Presse in 1992, but was re-released later as a chapter in " Schnappschüsse [ Snapshots ] another artist's book, which I edited in 2001 for Ed Morgan of Florence, one of his last books. Really, only to respect the truth of the facts, the original title was not translated literally, but it became "The painting is demanding mistress" and when, before going to press, showed the translation to Winfred and explained the reasons for the 'free' translation, 'jealous' to 'demanding', the difference was so obvious and was so pleased, so much so tell me if he could, would change the first word in the German version.
But back to the main theme, announced here, the relationship between painter and painting, the one supported by Winfred against his painting I think it was a long and exhausting struggle between his insights, perspectives and expectations of painter-creator and results that could achieve through his art-creature. There has been a constant challenge, a constant struggle and no holds barred from both sides. The constant reversals of field and the innovations that put more possibilities and different priorities Winfred continued to drag in a traffic jam, at times, unstoppable, poised between the dash and be able to steer the boat getting to the paint does not sink but never even abandoned to a mooring easy, marketable, tired repetition of stylistic elements that had made the best start of the series in the works. A whirlpool, a roundabout, turn around an infinity from which it was not easy to get out even less able to maneuver inside. If not with a rigid discipline adapted from time to time, or with the continuous called into question the results achieved each time. So ended the criticism, not finding the 'key to the problem', still could not see clearly and he could not understand much. On this 'impasse' and the old question concerning the alleged coherence 'a priori' the consistency of the works, came to the interpretation, finally illuminating, Filiberto Menna, which gave about his work in presenting it in the 1979 catalog of the exhibition at the Gallery of Hennemann Bonn: "The track , writing, drawing, painting. Painting, drawing, writing, the track. The happiness of the circle, the different time of art. Round trip against time linear, unidirectional and irreversible 'bad infinity' of the history and progress (...). Gaul (...). With his temperament, analytical, self-reflective, re-read and go back over their work, it identifies the constant changes beyond. " The other one of the few critics who, better than many others, including German, he knew he was in the underground array of all the work of WG was Henry Crispolti. The title of his presentation to the retrospective exhibition of Gaul to the Pinacoteca di Macerata, 1982 was: " W. Gaul, sign, drawing, tracing, painting, memory - (Works on Paper 1955-1982) " and it was really a title 'significant'. Crispolti was his longtime friend, since the two-year stay that Winfred had in Rome (1960-61) where he painted and exhibited, first in a group show at The Turtle Plinio De Martiis and then in 1962 all staff ' Sargentini penthouse, and the series of paintings made in Rome itself, the significant titles Romano Subject, Object and Subject of Mystical Contemplation (1961-62) (with the title, of course, in Italian). This series consists of only about a dozen paintings, many of them round, monochrome paintings, (a clear, further development of previous Wischbilder) with a sign in the center of a circle, almost like a target. The series was October 1961 also exhibited at the Galleria Blu in Milan, always with a presentation by Henry Crispolti.
WG was born July 9, 1928, under the Zodiac sign of Cancer. (4)
According to what astrology says most of those born under this sign are always looking for the great love that ideally remain faithful for life, but hard to maintain what we conquer " Mutability, restlessness, inclination to self, duty cycle and imagination lead them always elsewhere. " This fidelity to the ideal artistic passions that had involved from a young student at the Academy Stuttgart, Winfred, if the lead in, with him for a lifetime of painting. He readily confessed, not only in conversations or writings but also in his works, the love he had towards the art created by some of his favorite artists and who had been source of inspiration for him in his youth, or moment of reflection and comfort, which look back in times of crisis: Monet, Matisse and Turner were the names that came back often, especially when he was attentive and thoughtful, and wanted to talk seriously of his 'beloved painting'.
Even the titles of some of his paintings were 'statements': Meeting of Matisse and Mondrian in the study of W. Gaul, in a painting of 1988; H. Matisse in Tangiers and Matisse in Collioure in 2003. Or the whole series of triptychs and carved altars dedicated to Monet in 1988: Claude Monet Arizona ; CM in Marokko ; CM in Manhattan; CM in Cuzco; CM in Andalusia, and also the beautiful Dialog mit Henri Matisse [ Dialogue with Henri Matisse ] the same year.
is moving to the testimony which he described the long and constant love for painting by Claude Monet, especially when the biography (5) admits his first trip to Paris in 1953, as a young student of the Academy, to see the cycle of "Waterlilies" by Monet, the great paintings on display at the Orangerie. And as the memory of those works, he recognized, were born later paintings such as Rembrandt von Abschied [Farewell to Rembrandt] 1956-57 at the Museum of Saarbrücken, and Pracht der Zerstörung [pomp of Destruction] 1957 now in the collection of the Kunsthalle Mannheim and some tele series Couleur et Signification [ Colour and Meaning ] 1958-59.
His love and his devotion to painting was total and irreversible. As proven by the numerous and beautiful paintings he made in 50 year career, and in a more private, too, are testimony to the anecdote with which I personally 'witnessed' by far.
already hospitalized for lung cancer in a clinic Kaiserswerth analysis to make continuous and exhausting rounds of chemotherapy, only a hundred yards away from his home, so I wrote in a letter a few days before his death:
" 18.11.2003 , Robert Caro, despite all the drawbacks of chemotherapy have failed, returning to the studio to all, to make five nights following a series of 50 sheets of 24x29 cm format. That together would make a good book. These are subjective interpretations, less than a landscape that is not a memory of the sensations of light and color. How do I choose a provisional basis "Homage to the Langhe, see also other variants. I add some text by Cesare Pavese, who for all I know was born in Langa (...) and with the permission of the publisher could (....). We hope that some still resist. Hello, Winfred .
In 1967, I contacted the first time writing a letter, a couple of years before opening the tunnel at the time when artists tried to program a series of exhibitions. I had seen images of his paintings looking through catalogs of exhibitions of the year 1959/64, on Informal, there I found published some pictures in typical informal but already seems to be towards a more monochromatic painting. In fact, with these paintings in the show and was present in the catalog of " documenta II in Kassel in 1959, and with a Farbmanuskripte in 1962 participated in the exhibition" Bild und Schrift "at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, then he shows that ' era '. Instead, in the exhibition catalog "Alternative Current I" and "II" organized by Henry Crispolti in L'Aquila, between 1962-64, and "The Biennale of San Marino", there were already well in prominence, his work and being named Pop part of his series of Traffic Signs & Signals . So I sent him a letter expressing my enthusiasm for his work and offered my willingness to do an exhibition with the works, once I opened up my space. Pungent and ironic, as it was in his character, he said at the same time teasing and encouraging me that I was going to open a gallery in a trendy area, in its view, be considered 'depressed' and also the 'I had written on notepaper headed " Antiques" (written with Gothic-sic -). In the years that followed, about this story, we made lol. In reply, however, was friendly and helpful and promised to go from Livorno to visit during his future trips to Rome, (6) where he was exposed and friends, asking me to send him, however, exhibition catalogs that I realized Meanwhile, for 'control' the concrete achievements of my 'utopia' (written just in case). It was the summer of 1970, a year after I opened the gallery, which seeks to bring 3-4 pictures to see who was doing that year.
Ours was a meeting which immediately gave rise to fraternal friendship, which lasted until his death, and how me hard today. When I met him he was already famous for his works in the series Traffic Signs & Signals, had exhibited in major museums and some of these works were entered in the most important German collections of the time (that of Ludwig, to example). In 1970 it was reported, in 25th place, in the special list drawn up on the art world for the German magazine Capital, the magazine at the time Europe's most 'in', in the article: " KunstKompass, Die Großen 100"; Article extracted from a species of mimeographed bulletin that circulated, by subscription, among collectors, directors museum, art critics and gallery owners.
The journalist-critic of art, Cologne, Willi Bongard drew up an annual list of the 100 most interesting and progressive artists based: the most prestigious exhibitions held in museums and private galleries in more skilled; acquisitions in private collections or museums in which they entered their works, magazines and newspapers in which the exhibits were reviewed or the books of the History of Modern Art in which they were appointed jobs. The list of these rankings was so taken into account by the experts that it was even published in Italy in closing, as an afterword in the book of Dorfles: "Latest trends in today ", published by Feltrinelli in 1973. Even Gerhard Richter, in an interview a few years after he emigrated from East Germany, in Düsseldorf, said they had looked at his paintings and have painted some works similar to those of Winfred. ( 7)
Having written this I had to 'Tribute to Winfred Gaul', man, the artist and his painting, it was not for me, without emotion. Move up in those memories of our dear friend of many occasions and evenings spent together talking about art and painting. Go back over the many meetings and friendship that has bound us for all the years in which we worked together, collaborating and sharing, in turn, elation or disappointment, but always with mutual respect. Far
resurface sentences, events and behaviors that were there for over 30 years waiting to be relived and stories, I hope it is served, at least to provide, to those who knew him, a chance to get close to Winfred Gaul and his painting and, for those who knew him and valued the opportunity to further tribute of admiration. (8)
Finally to close my heartfelt reconstruction of the events which have affected his life, his works and his personality, I like to include this quote from the tone subtly refined and sarcastic, Manfred de la Motte had taken from a page of James Joyce and used as the opening of his writing for a catalog of WG 1957. A 'phrase' I consider, still highly significant and inherent on the 'spirit' of the work of Winfred or of the few artists like him. Alone could illuminate a particular light, all the work. And it's also why I put it right as final
" The artist is like the God of creation
inside or behind, beyond or above the
his work is invisible, refined, indifferent,
... and cleans his nails. "
(James Joyce)
RP
February 2009
Notes:
1 - Today this is a 'matter' does not exist is completely out of place. Since the post-modern before and then the third millennium, we have used to enter the staff of an artist, especially when young, and find simultaneously exposed on the walls and rooms of the gallery, the most disparate things: photos, drawings, lights, objects, sculptures, video, light-box, Cibachrome, large or small paintings, figurative and abstract. We see a multimedia installation produced in the same time and given all at once, perhaps with a seemingly casual setting and, as such, we accept it. No one will ever ask for the author to submit the test of 'consistency', if anything, in some cases views the images on the works, the anti-doping test. Today's world has been permanently removed from vaccinated and research at all costs in the value of consistency in art. As is the case for some time in the world of pop music, so it is today in the visual arts: even the 'cover' when they are repeated, even without any modification or alteration, is tacitly accepted and even attach it to the glory and the credit to him that has the re-submitted.
2 - Rolf Lauter WG analyzing the works of this period (1959-61) titled his paper " Analytical WG or the start of Painting. " In: WG works of the years 1953-1961, Editions Robert Peccolo, Livorno No. 2, February 1987
3 - WG Speaking of Matisse in "Dialog mit Claude Monet" (Dialogue with Claude Monet's works, 1982-88 )
Mühlenbusch Catalogue Galerie, Düsseldorf, 1989.
4 - Elizabeth Longari, "Portrait WG Humoral " chapter: Cancer and love, in " With Love" Portraits monographs, Editions Robert Peccolo, Livorno, June 1992. Reprinted in: "WG Werkverzeichnis Band II-Gemälde 1962-1983 (Catalogue Vol.II Paintings-1962 to 1983). Concept Verlag, Düsseldorf 1993.
5 - WG "Dialog mit Claude Monet." Op.cit.
6 - WG was very fond of Italy where it was, as soon as possible, for exhibitions and holidays. He also lived for long periods in Italy, where he rented the house: in the 60s for two years in Rome, Genova-Liguria Boccadasse for over 1 year, and S. Andrea di Rovereto near Chiavari, for over 6 years. These specimens are two letters from the tone and the mood is completely opposite. 30.11.2002 On the occasion of the exhibition: "The Gallery of Deposit" at the Museum of Villa Croce di Genova sent this statement, now published in the exhibition catalog, "My relationship with Italy goes back to a distant past. But it was not nostalgia for the traditional German class took the testimonies of antiquity that drove in the "land where lemons bloom", but the fact that early in my career as a painter I found critics, gallery owners, collectors in Milan, Rome later - later - in Genoa, Livorno, Florence and Turin that my paintings were interesting enough to expose them and buy them. The first step made him the legendary pioneer of avant-garde in Italy, Guido Le Noci, with an exhibition at the Galleria Apollinaire in Milan in 1957. I left the Art Academy only two years earlier. On that occasion I also know of Biumo Panza and his great collection of large-Action Painters Americans. Later I had friends doing a lot of contacts, so for many years often spent more time in Italy than in my country. So they invited me in Genoa-Boccadasse (where I lived for 2 years) and where Eugenio Carmi and Paolo Minetti directing the Gallery Store and at the same time a laboratory and an issue for original artwork that collaborated with many artists. Everyone was then encouraged by the idealistic enthusiasm that art should no longer be a privilege for the lucky few, but accessible to everyone. Missing a few more years to 1968, not a revolution, but at least one revolutionary thought. " Only recently was increasingly disappointed by our country and not only by art. Totally different mood and tone in the letter that I wrote in August 2003, " ... .. After this experience with an Italian museum must tell you that my plan to leave some works in Italian Museums is erased forever. ... I know exactly what to answer me: I react too much and without knowledge of the Italian situation. I know, but I do not give a f .... Bourbon Italian bureaucracy. You know very well how strong was my link with Italy once and for many years. In Italy I had my first artistic successes. I loved Italy, the country, the kitchen, the witnesses of a great history, great artists by Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Titian Keep away from. Italy was the first discovery for me over the border, an unknown land, another tongue, another rhythm of life, a different mentality. But strangely I felt at ease. Nowadays I wonder if that Italy would have loved that (sic) never existed or existed only in my imagination ?.... .
7 - Gerhard Richter , "The daily practice of painting " Ed Postmedia Books, pp.15-16.
8 - Re-reading the final version of these pages, I realized that through practical information relating to dates of exhibitions, titles of paintings, description of events and meetings in the art, along with anecdotes about the private life of WG I, perhaps, give the reader more information to understand the personality and work, but I also noticed that it has repeatedly insisted on the topics of his artistic intentions, the obsessions of his 'paint' and its phobias about the reception of film. Maybe I risked a pedantic phraseology haunting but I had only this chance to rebuild a 'climate', the fears, 'ghosts', the obsessions, of course, which remained in the study of individual artists before, during and after he completed his work. As he sang the beautiful Billie Holiday's voice in 'Body & Soul', ' without one, the other does not survive the other, without one, there ", so, to paraphrase the song, after the death of an artist, if is the set of pictures left, which are in museums or hanging on our walls or buried in some warehouse, the only thing 'tangibile'a form, in the end, the' Body '[the body] of all its Opera. It will, however, the 'Soul' [Soul] the only thing 'real', throbbing, without which we can not 'understand' the full scope of fully the 'energy' that for centuries humans define art. The works remain there, suspended or not, and their 'Soul' with us everywhere. It is the memory of those who remain to perpetuate the ideas of the disappeared. So I've never been 'irritated' by Winfred, and that's why I decided not to change or 'alleviate' this paper.
0 comments:
Post a Comment