Robert Klümpen

As a graduate of Dieter Krieg’s Master class Robert Klümpen is updating a particular position in art. He addresses the interface of painting where an image and its reproduction enter into a reciprocal relationship with each other and explores the difference between a depicted thing and its real counterpart. His exhibition gut und gern translates this conundrum into a monumental statement, at the same time affording us insight into the painter’s workshop, which resembles a kitchenette. Eight large-scale pictures and basic roof battens combine to form a simple carpentered framework with a stepped base that begs comparison with an enclosed children’s roundabout. As an octagon this art object made of art – entitled Cella – could refer to the architecture of sacred buildings or to a vessel, like the chapel of the Madonna in the Ruins, a free-standing font (baptistery) or perhaps to liturgical cups known as ciboria designed to hold consecrated wafers (examples are exhibited in Room 7). Yet these formal associative clues fade in the face of the stark reality of the framework’s stance in space. A peep through the gaps into the interior confirms that it is completely empty. The reverence expected in our visual perception of abstract colour painting since Mark Rothko’s generation is thwarted. The artistic concern is apparently directed at evoking a magical world of beautiful appearances, the enchanted mirror of reality offered at a fairground. A disco ball hanging in the apex of the delineated roof construction takes these words literally. Its multifaceted mirror reflects the numerous smaller-scale paintings hanging on the surrounding walls. In these, Klümpen has made varied use of his painterly medium with playful relish, nearly but not quite indulging in kitsch. He ignites a firework of visual effects, rendering familiar subjects, using a brush, crayon and spray paint. The apparently fleeting nature of these images contrasts with the air of virtuosity of his techniques. Abstract “bubbles” alternate with a few still lifes and portraits of some painters, including Paula Modersohn-Becker, Ferdinand Hodler and Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner. These small format pictures hung regularly at eye level generate a rhythm that pervades the room, while the dialogue about painting in relation to the pictorial merry-go-round gathers pace.

Initially planned for Friday 20 March at 4.30 pm (but indefinitely postponed!)
Robert Klümpen talking to Dietmar Rübel

The exhibition is accompanied by an artist's booklet, 32 pages, four-colour, with inserted colour photograph (edition of 300 copies).