Norbert Prangenberg
07 Oct - 20 Nov 2010
NORBERT PRANGENBERG
7 october – 20 november 2010
ANCIENT & MODERN presents oil paintings and faience-glazed ceramic sculptures by Norbert Prangenberg, in his first solo exhibition since 1985 to take place in London.
In the early 1970s Norbert Prangenberg was drawn to a number of prominent figures led by Josef Beuys who were working in the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Prangenberg was most influenced by the formal and material rather than the political and theoretical elements of these artists’ practices, a preoccupation with “the lively interplay between hand, eye, and material” that remains foremost in his ceramics and paintings made to date.
Norbert Prangenberg’s oil paintings, on panel and canvas, reflect an interest in the theatricality of painting: the notion of process as performance and action, and how this relates to colour and surface. There is often an awareness or acknowledgment of the material quality of art works, that there are different ways of looking at and understanding texture, painting, narrative and form. As such, the works frequently contain pictures, phrases or characters within themselves: small squares of colour as windows into or out of the piece; fallen medieval Knights; the letters “ROBINSON” (in reference to Crusoe, the fictional explorer) scattered across the surface plane; or Tengu, a benevolent Japanese ghost with human and avian charcteristics sometimes depicted with a very long nose – its tiny face peering out of bright smears of colour or lying within the heavy impasto and licks of paint that curl from the paintings’ edges, Prangenberg has said that it is sometimes he, sometimes the paintings that find these different subjects and make associations, a sort of notional-material alchemy that is extended to the viewer to engage with in a similar manner.
Biography
Norbert Prangenberg (born 1949 Rommerskirchen-Nettesheim, Rhineland) has exhibited widely in Germany, most recently with solo shows at Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg (2008); Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany (2005) and at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum, Krefeld, Germany (2004). He also exhibits with Produzentengalerie, Hamburg and Karsten Greve (Paris and Cologne). Earlier this year had a solo presentation at Betty Cunningham Gallery, New York. He exhibited at Knoedler Fine Art, London in 1985. Since 1993, Prangenberg has held a Professorship in Sculpture at the Art Academy in Munich.
Exhibition Preview: Wednesday 6th October, 6—8pm
Open Wednesdays - Saturdays, 12—6pm and by appointment
7 october – 20 november 2010
ANCIENT & MODERN presents oil paintings and faience-glazed ceramic sculptures by Norbert Prangenberg, in his first solo exhibition since 1985 to take place in London.
In the early 1970s Norbert Prangenberg was drawn to a number of prominent figures led by Josef Beuys who were working in the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Prangenberg was most influenced by the formal and material rather than the political and theoretical elements of these artists’ practices, a preoccupation with “the lively interplay between hand, eye, and material” that remains foremost in his ceramics and paintings made to date.
Norbert Prangenberg’s oil paintings, on panel and canvas, reflect an interest in the theatricality of painting: the notion of process as performance and action, and how this relates to colour and surface. There is often an awareness or acknowledgment of the material quality of art works, that there are different ways of looking at and understanding texture, painting, narrative and form. As such, the works frequently contain pictures, phrases or characters within themselves: small squares of colour as windows into or out of the piece; fallen medieval Knights; the letters “ROBINSON” (in reference to Crusoe, the fictional explorer) scattered across the surface plane; or Tengu, a benevolent Japanese ghost with human and avian charcteristics sometimes depicted with a very long nose – its tiny face peering out of bright smears of colour or lying within the heavy impasto and licks of paint that curl from the paintings’ edges, Prangenberg has said that it is sometimes he, sometimes the paintings that find these different subjects and make associations, a sort of notional-material alchemy that is extended to the viewer to engage with in a similar manner.
Biography
Norbert Prangenberg (born 1949 Rommerskirchen-Nettesheim, Rhineland) has exhibited widely in Germany, most recently with solo shows at Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg (2008); Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany (2005) and at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum, Krefeld, Germany (2004). He also exhibits with Produzentengalerie, Hamburg and Karsten Greve (Paris and Cologne). Earlier this year had a solo presentation at Betty Cunningham Gallery, New York. He exhibited at Knoedler Fine Art, London in 1985. Since 1993, Prangenberg has held a Professorship in Sculpture at the Art Academy in Munich.
Exhibition Preview: Wednesday 6th October, 6—8pm
Open Wednesdays - Saturdays, 12—6pm and by appointment