Alex Katz & Vroni Schwegler
September 18, 2017
7 - 10 pm
During my studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, I learned about and came to appreciate the paintings of Alex Katz in a wonderful seminar taught by Joachim Peter Kastner. Later, at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, I spent many hours talking to Vroni about Titian, Rubens, and many other painters, and we exchanged opinions, including about Alex Katz. We often agreed, but not in his case.
For this one-night exhibition, I invited Vroni Schwegler to juxtapose two of her early portrait paintings with a silkscreen print by Alex Katz, a self-portrait, which is in our collection.
For this One - Night - Exhibition I invited Vroni Schwegler to juxtapose two of her early portrait paintings with a silkscreen of Alex Katz, a self-portrait, which is in our collection.
Alex Katz born July 24, 1927, is an American figurative artist known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints. He is represented by numerous galleries internationally.
Vroni Schwegler writes about one of her portraits:
In Laetitia's Kitchen (1994) is a picture from my student days in the class of Hermann Nitsch at the Städelschule.
For a few months, I had been in a relationship with the filmmaker Günter Zehetner, who had moved from Vienna to Frankfurt half because of my studies with Peter Kubelka in the class for film and cooking as an art form and half because of me. Laetitia is his landlady in Frankfurt, who may not have it easy with us: Her kitchen is the scene of our struggle for our respective identities as artists and as a couple. The painting reflects this existential fundamental phase and shows my involvement with early Italian painting, with Giotto above all, whom I particularly admired at that time.
Vroni Schwegler studied art at the Städelschule, University of Fine Arts, Frankfurt/M., class Hermann Nitsch, master student.
Still Life and Portrait
Vroni Schwegler and Alex Katz in the exhibition series „“.
by Angelica Horn
The person entering first sees a large-format, brightly colored frontal portrait of a young-looking man hanging on the opposite wall, apparently an Alex Katz. Then they look at the people in the room, who are standing between the works on display, looking at them, commenting on what they notice, and asking questions of the artist of the other two portraits shown, Vroni Schwegler. Then the conversation turns to the portrait by Alex Katz; the question is how to interpret its expression. It is quiet, almost silent—very different from the usual hustle and bustle at an exhibition opening.
On both side walls hangs a two-person piece by Vroni Schwegler, pictures she painted during her studies at the Städelschule in Frankfurt under Hermann Nitsch, a year before she took up the position on the cross at one of Nitsch's large Orgien-Mysterien-Theater (Orgy Mystery Theaters) in Prinzendorf, Austria. The two paintings can be described as portraits insofar as they reveal something of the essence and personality of the two subjects, but more importantly, they represent the relationship between the two. The two people, who bear a certain resemblance to each other, are standing or sitting in an interior space. In the picture labeled “In Laetitia's Kitchen, January 1994,” the woman, wearing only underwear, stands slightly behind the clothed man; in the picture labeled “Günter and I for Berni 13.4,” the naked woman sits on the upper leg of the man, who is wearing a white shirt but is otherwise naked. Despite all the closeness depicted, there is no impression of intimate unity; rather, each figure seems to remain in a state of isolation. In terms of the painting, it is about the relationship between the two figures in the picture plane; in terms of content, it is about balancing a relationship, about the problem of locating oneself in relation to the other and for oneself. While the male figure is somewhat statuesque and dignified, the female figure is more demanding in nature, but also more displaced. The images do not tell a story, but rather reveal a state of being, forming a kind of exposure or disclosure. In terms of the relationship between bodies in space and surface, one could speak of a still life.
The private character of the paintings is maintained right down to the individual color choices. It is about subjective sensitivity and awareness. Today, she can no longer paint so naively and impartially, says the artist this evening, confronted once again with these early works after so long, and there is a note of regret in her voice. The paintings are painted from memory. In the painterly conception, the people depicted ultimately have no other status than the other things in the picture, which form the setting or accessories and help to determine or comment on the balance of the relationship. The viewer may feel inclined to imagine the depicted scene as a real situation and bring it to life, as if this would enable them to grasp the matter at hand. It is a game of subjective self-determination that is open in itself.
The silkscreen by Alex Katz is quite different from these two-person portraits. Alex Katz is concerned with the isolation and composition of individual coloured surfaces, the meaning of which is measured by the respective silhouette and the meaning of which consists in the glow of the colour itself, as if light (or shadow) were lying on it. The gaze of the portrayed person, it is a self-portrait, which belongs to the portfolio work "Alex and Ada: The 1960's to the 1990's" from 1990 under the title "Sweatshirt 2"; this gaze constitutes the relationship to the viewer. In addition, it captures the surfaces, the overall context of the picture, so to speak, because it's hard to escape it and to refrain from it for once. There is nothing private here, but here the pure and clear public presentation and self-representation applies. What does one experience here of the interior, of the essence of what is depicted? Here the surface rules, and there is nothing but the surface in its own expression. "My pictures are in your face," Alex Katz once formulated.
The artist makes his own image available to the viewer, which says nothing but a self-sufficiency, an openness that reveals nothing. The surfaces without volumes do not actually form an object, perhaps a symbol of it. There is no resistance, no resistance. This may be perceived as pleasant or decorative, but it also means a form of domination, not least because the "portrait" is larger than life. Portrait is put in quotation marks, in so far as I am confronted here with someone with whom I do not feel I have a real relationship. Perhaps it is about the sweatshirt as a sign and about physiognomy as a sign of interpretability? It is about the extremely precise and in itself completely abstract relationship of colored areas in their respective colorfulness to each other, which leaves an impressive effect. The picture is printed in twenty-six colours. The delicacy in detail, the work on the exactness creates the freshness and liveliness of the expression. Perhaps this is the essence of the portrayed person? It remains the juxtaposition that holds the viewer.
The concept of personhood is reflected in entirely different ways in the works shown in this exhibition organized by Carolin Kropff as part of the series “ ” in the “compartment” in front of the communal studio at Langestraße 31 in Frankfurt: On the one hand, there is the clear and defined opposition between viewer and image, and on the other hand, there is the imagination and realization of being a person in relationship. This opens up a field in which the viewer may locate himself, unless he enters the dark studio to enjoy a drink and engage in conversation.
(Translated by deepL)
(Copyright Angelica Horn, Frankfurt am Main 2017)
The philosopher Angelica Horn lives and works in Frankfurt am Main.
Kindly supported by Kulturamt Frankfurt.