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This category contains the following articles
- Return of the art fairs: Frieze London and Frieze Masters to open in Regent's Park
- Maxwell Alexandre, Conny Maier, Zhang Xu Zhan: Deutsche Bank's "Artists of the Year" at the PalaisPopulaire
- Ways of Seeing Abstraction: Rana Begum, WP 410-412, 2020
- Ways of Seeing Abstraction: Franziska Furter, Draft IX/V, 2010
- Kunstsammlung NRW - Everyone is an artist. Cosmopolitan exercises with Joseph Beuys
- Royal Academy of Arts - David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020
- Ways of Seeing Abstraction: Fabian Marti, Untitled, 2011
- Ways of Seeing Abstraction: Jo�o Maria Gusm�o + Pedro Paiva
- Ways of Seeing Abstraction: Beat Zoderer, Polygon I-VI, 2019
- Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt - Gilbert & George: The Great Exhibition
- Ways of Seeing Abstraction: Karla Knight, Spaceship Note (The Fantastic Universe), 2020
Ways of Seeing Abstraction:
Fabian Marti, Untitled, 2011
Most
people still understand abstraction as a concentration on form. It is
viewed as an art movement which is used to express aesthetic ideas,
orders, philosophical ideas or inner feelings, but which does not have
much to do with everyday reality. However, especially in times marked
by crises, relevance and urgency are also expected from art, and it is
expected to make a statement on current social issues. Today, artistic
commitment is not conveyed exclusively through clear visual messages
and content, but increasingly through abstraction. For younger
generations, in particular, non-representational art is the means of
choice for addressing politics, religion, and social issues. Showcasing
works from the Deutsche Bank Collection, the exhibition “Ways of Seeing
Abstraction” at the PalaisPopulaire undertakes a thoroughly subjective
survey of international abstraction from postwar modernism to the
recent present, documenting the diversity and discursivity that lie
behind the idea of non-objective, “pure” form. On the occasion of the
exhibition, our series will show you works by artists who use
abstraction idiosyncratically and define it in new ways.
Fabian Marti, Untitled, 2011
� Courtesy the artist and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich. Photo: Sebastian Schaub
The concentric circles in Fabian Marti's photogram unfold an almost hypnotic effect. They unsettle the eye, seem to move. Like a spiral, they draw the gaze into the depths. Spirals frequently appear in Marti's work as a reference to cosmic spiral nebulae and natural forms such as snail shells. At the same time, spirals turn throughout the history of art and culture: on Stone Age ceramics, in Marcel Duchamp's film An�mic Cin�ma (1926), in shimmering 1960s' Op Art paintings, and in countless comics, where they symbolize a loss of control or intoxication. Marti's works succeed in formally restoring the original power of this countlessly reproduced motif.
His entire oeuvre revolves around the expansion of consciousness. Work after work alludes to shamanism, mysticism, and the drug-induced psychedelic experiences of the hippie movement. Additionally, his highly decorative photographic works, ceramics, and installations contain numerous references to formalism, abstraction, and minimalism. Marti combines diverse artistic techniques, working with analog and digital means, with found and his own material. He is akin to an alchemist in whose laboratory seductive works are created as an invitation to take a journey into realms that elude our rational view of the world.