11.03.2000 - 15.04.2000, Karlsruhe

Corinne Wasmuht

 

Corinne Wasmuht’s painting develops from the dualism of strict, conceptual pictorial structures for one part, and the process of painting on the other. For her pictorial ideas Corinne Wasmuth collects images of daily life, science and art – to form these into a new entity. This gives birth to staged productions with references to contemporary contexts. The painting “astronauts“for example, which will be in the focus of our exhibition, is about the view into a grotto. There are crystals in the interior of the grotto, growing from the ground and dangling from the ceiling, in which astronauts hover, captured like insects in amber. The metaphor of the grotto, like some other contemporary positions refers to the creation of an own fictional world. This intention is reinforced by the size of the paintings. The motifs become physical counterparts and assert themselves in the reality in which they are placed.
Finally the colour marks the transition from pictorial search to actual painting, referring to the second element of Corinne Wasmuth’s work. The paintings are developed on carefully grounded wooden panels – onto which oil varnishes are applied. The oil paint is applied in many layers. This results into a vivid brightness of the colours - awakening the impression of a being illuminated from behind. The controlled colour application stands in contradiction to the subjectivity of the motifs in Corinne Wasmuht’s pictorial worlds.

”I want the paintings to shine from within. The colours radiate most with the use of varnishes, and the grids reinforce the impression. Now I’m going to try to say something rather difficult to put into words – rather my feeling than a strict concept: When a being dies, colour fades away. The dying plant turns brown. When a human being passes away the body turns waxen. The body is the colourless exterior that remains – this side of life. For me colour represents the other side of life. Thus, life is the other side of life in this side of life – for me personally colour represents life (…) The other side – colour illuminated from the behind, from church windows to TV and the computer monitor – we love so much because here colour seems to be alive without a physical body.” (Corinne Wasmuht interviewed by Matthias Winzen)