The images of Berlin painter Jörn Grothkopp condense
their subject matter to its essential features, irrelevant details are
deliberately and consistently expunged. Grothkopp’s flat style of painting
where the smooth surfaces are never disturbed by the tactile structure of
individual brush strokes enhances the condensation brought about by this reduction
to the essence. The third distinctive feature of Gothkopp’s painting style is
the fact that the forms are frequently veiled by a luminous white, as if they
just appeared before us in the fog, or as if we could only see them through
misted window panes. Taken together, these elements effect a dramatic
metamorphosis from nature to art, from realism to the artificial. The depicted
scenes thus present themselves as if through the glass of an aquarium. This is
not just the case in the paintings of Koi frequently painted by Grothkopp, but
also in his portraits: the inner life of his subjects remains hidden,
secretive, ultimately indecipherable. Subjected to this kind of
generalization and increased anonymity, the depicted faces effectively
withdraw, become less graspable (in both its literal and metaphorical senses).
Specific people and tangible objects are transformed into ciphers and similes,
and occasionally they even pale in a quite literal way. But paradoxically that
is precisely how they unfold their hypnotic effect, becoming icons, silver
screens for our own projections. It is for this reason that Wulf Herzogenrath,
in his essay in the newly published book on Jörn Grothkopp, very aptly links
them to the world of cinema: “The individual images are all stills from a film
that is really in movement, a flowing correspondent to the natural situation of
the living environment. Panta rhei—all flows and is in movement—cannot
only be represented with real movement in the new media, but also occurs in the
mind of the beholder when a painter like Grothkopp combines this openness of
composition with the subject-matter and merge it to create a plurality within
the unity.”
In concurrence with the
exhibition the Kerber Verlag has just published a new book on Jörn Grothkopp’s
work as an artist:
Jörn Grothkopp. Kerber Verlag, November 2013.
With contributions by Wulf Herzogenrath and Thomas Thiel.
German / English, 160 pp. with 127 illustrations, 22 x 28 cm,
ISBN 978-3-86678-887-9, € 38.00
