Alex Müller
24 May - 25 Jun 2016
ALEX MÜLLER
Willst du meine Frau werden
24 May – 25 June 2016
The paintings of Alex Müller involve highly pigmented Indian ink upon unprimed canvas or other cloth. „Squids soak the sea blue“, that’s the title of a work from 2005. The liquid of the ink induces large fields of intensive colour and fine lines that suggest a proximity to drawing. The ink flow and its adhesion on the bed of the cloth cause a sensation of movement. Landscapes - ground, rock, sky, astral matter - bear oneiric images of figures. In monochromatic radiant white pigments they stand on indigo watered canvas, black cotton or dark velvet, moonstruck as it were. You hardly find green in this exhibition but instead poppy seed on the wall. The paintings that date from this and last year are simple and small-format mostly, if you compare them to former works (e.g., a cycle of works made with pale gold, 2005-2008).
Some of the recent paintings are inspired by photographs of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, that sensitively witness his life with Erna Schilling and their visitors upon the mountain, at the ‘Stafelalp’ and in Davos Frauenkirch. (These were edited only 2006 in a comprehensive catalogue: “E. L. Kirchner. The Photographic Work. 1908-1938“, Steidl.) In terms of motifs, these are in this exhibition e.g. “Die Dreisamkeit” (“Threesome”) and „Hinter dem Tag” (“Behind the Day”). Yet the dark arrangement of the paintings can stem just as well from the artist’s engagement with the black-and-white photography.
To circle the work of Alex Müller you might mention as an example her sculpture „Über Gewebe von Luft“ („Upon fabrics of air“, 2003): silk garments to wear, painted with portraits. Patrizia Dander mentioned that the (full-size) portraits of the artist worked like mirrors. It plays only a minor part of who is designated. The tale tells of our acquaintance with us. It speaks about visitors, alliances, separation, and a subliminal urge for a family, the epicentre of recollection. This reference seems likely for the ceramic works too, as they carry in their titles surnames and provide the address of “Frau” (Mrs) and “Herr” (Mr).
The first ceramic work of the artist, „Jeder Stadt ein Müller” (“To Every Town A Miller“, 2012) consisted of 38 grids (and 4 plates), or weavings, that in each case stood for a certain town as if following a higher encoding. Cologne, Florence, Vienna, et cetera. A canvas weave, by the way, is based upon the same, easiest right-angled crossing of warp and weft. The forms in the exhibition, now rather organic rolls and loops than surfaces, are grouped as an “Orchestra”. Just as before their materiality remains visible: the brittle condition of the clay, the silkiness and elasticity of the porcelain paste that usually needs to be worked very thin, and slumps down easily. The artist calls this branch in her work „another form of the drawing“ - even if it takes place much more slowly than in her “quick sheets” that originate in parallel over and over again. A hatching that appears regularly in this regard is set upon the large dipper „The Penthouse Present“ (some visitors say it’s a pipe). Alex Müller felled and carved the birch 12 years ago. Now, she has coated it with a drawing, and in this way pushes the vessel undergo a modification of dedication and distancing at the same time. “Mrs Wolf”, a once recognizable cast-iron dumbbell now covered with reflecting shards, is based upon a similar approach.
Willst du meine Frau werden
24 May – 25 June 2016
The paintings of Alex Müller involve highly pigmented Indian ink upon unprimed canvas or other cloth. „Squids soak the sea blue“, that’s the title of a work from 2005. The liquid of the ink induces large fields of intensive colour and fine lines that suggest a proximity to drawing. The ink flow and its adhesion on the bed of the cloth cause a sensation of movement. Landscapes - ground, rock, sky, astral matter - bear oneiric images of figures. In monochromatic radiant white pigments they stand on indigo watered canvas, black cotton or dark velvet, moonstruck as it were. You hardly find green in this exhibition but instead poppy seed on the wall. The paintings that date from this and last year are simple and small-format mostly, if you compare them to former works (e.g., a cycle of works made with pale gold, 2005-2008).
Some of the recent paintings are inspired by photographs of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, that sensitively witness his life with Erna Schilling and their visitors upon the mountain, at the ‘Stafelalp’ and in Davos Frauenkirch. (These were edited only 2006 in a comprehensive catalogue: “E. L. Kirchner. The Photographic Work. 1908-1938“, Steidl.) In terms of motifs, these are in this exhibition e.g. “Die Dreisamkeit” (“Threesome”) and „Hinter dem Tag” (“Behind the Day”). Yet the dark arrangement of the paintings can stem just as well from the artist’s engagement with the black-and-white photography.
To circle the work of Alex Müller you might mention as an example her sculpture „Über Gewebe von Luft“ („Upon fabrics of air“, 2003): silk garments to wear, painted with portraits. Patrizia Dander mentioned that the (full-size) portraits of the artist worked like mirrors. It plays only a minor part of who is designated. The tale tells of our acquaintance with us. It speaks about visitors, alliances, separation, and a subliminal urge for a family, the epicentre of recollection. This reference seems likely for the ceramic works too, as they carry in their titles surnames and provide the address of “Frau” (Mrs) and “Herr” (Mr).
The first ceramic work of the artist, „Jeder Stadt ein Müller” (“To Every Town A Miller“, 2012) consisted of 38 grids (and 4 plates), or weavings, that in each case stood for a certain town as if following a higher encoding. Cologne, Florence, Vienna, et cetera. A canvas weave, by the way, is based upon the same, easiest right-angled crossing of warp and weft. The forms in the exhibition, now rather organic rolls and loops than surfaces, are grouped as an “Orchestra”. Just as before their materiality remains visible: the brittle condition of the clay, the silkiness and elasticity of the porcelain paste that usually needs to be worked very thin, and slumps down easily. The artist calls this branch in her work „another form of the drawing“ - even if it takes place much more slowly than in her “quick sheets” that originate in parallel over and over again. A hatching that appears regularly in this regard is set upon the large dipper „The Penthouse Present“ (some visitors say it’s a pipe). Alex Müller felled and carved the birch 12 years ago. Now, she has coated it with a drawing, and in this way pushes the vessel undergo a modification of dedication and distancing at the same time. “Mrs Wolf”, a once recognizable cast-iron dumbbell now covered with reflecting shards, is based upon a similar approach.