Gregor Hildebrandt
02 Sep - 16 Nov 2010
GREGOR HILDEBRANDT
"Shapeless In The Dark Again"
September 2 - November 16, 2010
Creatures kissing in the rain / Shapeless in the dark again
In the hanging garden / Please don't speak
In the hanging garden / No one sleeps
Music is present everywhere in Gregor Hildebrandt's art. It serves both as concrete material for his sculpture and assemblage paintings, as well as the thematic umbrella that stretches over his oeuvres, setting the overall mood of the exhibition. The title, derived from a song by The Cure, touches on the melancholic and evasive quality of Hildebrandt's art. From the very outset we are left to wonder about the terms "shapeless" and "dark" that both contradict the very essence of the art object, whose aim it is to materialize the subject-matter into form and substance. It is not surprising then that Hildebrandt's art does not give itself instantly to the viewer. Rather, the works unravel before our eyes, as we gradually identify the objet trouvé (the found object) in the form of LP records, cassette tapes and posters of movie stars, sensitively woven in Hildebrandt's works. Moving between fluid colour-field painting and more rigid minimalist compositions, part of Hildebrandt's painting corpus is deeply grounded in the modernist tradition of abstraction. In other works, genre painting of portraiture and still-life are re-examined through various layers of illusion reflections (be it of mirror, glass or water). Together the works call our attention to their surface, consistently challenging our perception of both image and material, all the while instilling a sense of nostalgia to an era on the brink of disappearance.
"Shapeless In The Dark Again"
September 2 - November 16, 2010
Creatures kissing in the rain / Shapeless in the dark again
In the hanging garden / Please don't speak
In the hanging garden / No one sleeps
Music is present everywhere in Gregor Hildebrandt's art. It serves both as concrete material for his sculpture and assemblage paintings, as well as the thematic umbrella that stretches over his oeuvres, setting the overall mood of the exhibition. The title, derived from a song by The Cure, touches on the melancholic and evasive quality of Hildebrandt's art. From the very outset we are left to wonder about the terms "shapeless" and "dark" that both contradict the very essence of the art object, whose aim it is to materialize the subject-matter into form and substance. It is not surprising then that Hildebrandt's art does not give itself instantly to the viewer. Rather, the works unravel before our eyes, as we gradually identify the objet trouvé (the found object) in the form of LP records, cassette tapes and posters of movie stars, sensitively woven in Hildebrandt's works. Moving between fluid colour-field painting and more rigid minimalist compositions, part of Hildebrandt's painting corpus is deeply grounded in the modernist tradition of abstraction. In other works, genre painting of portraiture and still-life are re-examined through various layers of illusion reflections (be it of mirror, glass or water). Together the works call our attention to their surface, consistently challenging our perception of both image and material, all the while instilling a sense of nostalgia to an era on the brink of disappearance.