Uwe Wittwer
28 Aug - 23 Oct 2010
UWE WITTWER
The Unknown Photographer
28 August – 23 October, 2010
We are delighted to show new oil paintings by the Swiss artist Uwe Wittwer (born 1954 in Zurich, lives and works in Zurich and Berlin). Wittwer has become prominent with many solo exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad. For his first exhibition at Lullin + Ferrari he has adopted programmatically the title of the painting The Unknown Photographer as the title of the show.
Wittwer draws the source material for his figurative paintings from the internet. The photographers of the family pictures, holiday memories and war sceneries are unknown to him; the anonymous photography is the basis of his artistic work. While searching the world wide web Wittwer encounters images, to which he is attracted. He files these discoveries in his image archives – sometimes years pass until he dedicates more time to one of the images and starts to discover it anew with compositional and painted means.
The exhibition at Lullin + Ferrari holds the character of a concentrated intimate play, which focus on the different ways of seeing. The lifesize painted, unknown photographer is the thematic leitmotiv of the exhibition: in a clearance he points his camera towards the public. He is completely absorbed in his occupation and requires from the public the same attention towards the paintings in the show he lends to the subject in front of his camera.
In the first room the large format painting Rotation (Diptychon) (2010) welcomes the visitors. In this image Wittwer positions a rollercoaster in a fun fair stupendously into the picture. The wagon of the rollercoaster itself can‘t be seen in the diptych, but its chattering resonates in the wooden construction and the noise of the fun fair surges up the construction. Beside the loud Rotation Wittwer places a contained Wall Piece (2010); on a black wall piece a large and old photography is painted, showing three attentive posing children.
In the middle room of the gallery hang the paintings Riders and Flurry (2010) in which Wittwer refer to previous groups of works. In the painting Riders a merry-go-round is depicted, turning in circles from the left to the right. Behind the boy in the left part of the painting a black drapery is raised, clearing the view onto a sunny landscape. On the right side of the image, menacing and darker hues predominate. The wooden horses suddenly allude to the horses in the battle paintings of the Florentine Renaissance painter Paolo Uccello, Wittwer had appropriated in previous, large works on paper. The painting Flurry inspires through the parallel order of the picture ground, through the outline of people shown in the snow and through its flush of colours. In the foreground of the painting sledges are visible, reminding of Wittwer‘s snow pieces from East Prussia.
Wittwer has the singular ability to remove in his paintings the authorship and therefore elevate his paintings to an universal level. By doing so his long standing occupation with the painting medium is always present, either in the accurate choice of colours, in the progress of lines or in the characteristics of brush marks.
The Unknown Photographer
28 August – 23 October, 2010
We are delighted to show new oil paintings by the Swiss artist Uwe Wittwer (born 1954 in Zurich, lives and works in Zurich and Berlin). Wittwer has become prominent with many solo exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad. For his first exhibition at Lullin + Ferrari he has adopted programmatically the title of the painting The Unknown Photographer as the title of the show.
Wittwer draws the source material for his figurative paintings from the internet. The photographers of the family pictures, holiday memories and war sceneries are unknown to him; the anonymous photography is the basis of his artistic work. While searching the world wide web Wittwer encounters images, to which he is attracted. He files these discoveries in his image archives – sometimes years pass until he dedicates more time to one of the images and starts to discover it anew with compositional and painted means.
The exhibition at Lullin + Ferrari holds the character of a concentrated intimate play, which focus on the different ways of seeing. The lifesize painted, unknown photographer is the thematic leitmotiv of the exhibition: in a clearance he points his camera towards the public. He is completely absorbed in his occupation and requires from the public the same attention towards the paintings in the show he lends to the subject in front of his camera.
In the first room the large format painting Rotation (Diptychon) (2010) welcomes the visitors. In this image Wittwer positions a rollercoaster in a fun fair stupendously into the picture. The wagon of the rollercoaster itself can‘t be seen in the diptych, but its chattering resonates in the wooden construction and the noise of the fun fair surges up the construction. Beside the loud Rotation Wittwer places a contained Wall Piece (2010); on a black wall piece a large and old photography is painted, showing three attentive posing children.
In the middle room of the gallery hang the paintings Riders and Flurry (2010) in which Wittwer refer to previous groups of works. In the painting Riders a merry-go-round is depicted, turning in circles from the left to the right. Behind the boy in the left part of the painting a black drapery is raised, clearing the view onto a sunny landscape. On the right side of the image, menacing and darker hues predominate. The wooden horses suddenly allude to the horses in the battle paintings of the Florentine Renaissance painter Paolo Uccello, Wittwer had appropriated in previous, large works on paper. The painting Flurry inspires through the parallel order of the picture ground, through the outline of people shown in the snow and through its flush of colours. In the foreground of the painting sledges are visible, reminding of Wittwer‘s snow pieces from East Prussia.
Wittwer has the singular ability to remove in his paintings the authorship and therefore elevate his paintings to an universal level. By doing so his long standing occupation with the painting medium is always present, either in the accurate choice of colours, in the progress of lines or in the characteristics of brush marks.