Tomio Koyama

Bernhard Brungs

07 - 28 Mar 2009

© Installation view
BERNHARD BRUNGS
"Die Schläfer"

In the artworks by Bernhard Brungs, we encounter some great historical figures of literature, such as German poet Else Lasker-Schüler, Austrian poet Georg Trakl, French maudit Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine. In addition to these poets, we face some more characters of the time, like the publisher of "Der Sturm" Herwarth Walden, the director of the film "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. His main approach is literary circles like French symbolists and German expressionists. It shows that a network of personal and artistic influences connects all of them. Brungs follows the paths of their work and their lives and tries to create images that picture some characteristic situations of his protagonist's biographies in an emotional and sensitive way. The traditional techniques of creating a crayon base on canvas, in combination with oil painting in very thin liquid layers give the paintings their unique look. As Brungs only uses darkish colors, all light shades result from allowing the basement to shine through the grazing layers. The restrained spectrum of color, the unique shading and lighting characterizes Brung's paintings. Despite the modest grey base, the colors produced by Brung's palette shines distinctively.
 

Tags: Bernhard Brungs