Bill Adams, Claus Böhmler, Jesuis Crystiano, Joe Neave at Warhus Rittershaus

Artists: Bill Adams, Claus Böhmler, Jesuis Crystiano, Joe Neave

Exhibition title: Untitled #3

Venue: Warhus Rittershaus, Cologne, Germany

Date: January 21 – March 4, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Warhus Rittershaus, Cologne

As of today, no one has ever claimed that the death of drawing was here. The drawing has long enjoyed an excellent reputation. In the opinion of some, it was not born as a hardliner of art history, but certainly since the times of Leonardo da Vinci, if not before, it has been highly esteemed and may do almost anything it pleases. Imagine, if you will, a revival of the disegno colore debate: today, drawing would be the clear winner of such a contest, more than ever. Drawing is highly popular. It fulfills needs because it is direct, genuine and ‘true’. Drawing is the most liberal and free of all genres, even if it has only been considered as a seperate entity in the theory of art since the modern age. In the Renaissance it was considered the origin, the source, the mother and the father of painting, sculpture and architecture. Not for nothing were these three titans of artistic genres called the “arti del disegno” (“the arts of drawing”). Right up until the advent of the modern period, the drawing served as the base of the ‘actual’ work of art, and hovered in the atmosphere of the practical result as it’s “transcendental principle”[1]. It was only in the modern age that the drawing became established as an unconditional and self-sufficient purpose in itself. Drawing therefore was and is always present, it is exempt from the progress of time and not subject to fashions. It is always justified, does not have to assert itself and does not constantly reinvent itself. It’s initial rawness makes it even more seductive, in line with sentimental desires. Only paper and pen are necesseary to the genius, the talented hand can show it’s virtuosity in a streak on the white. It is in this romaticised form in which drawing is usually consumed by the viewer: as the genius, magical trace through which we feel close to the draftsman, as if he had just ‘finished’.

However, the real achievement of drawing is the mark of the figure of thought as the actualized idea! With infantile ease, drawing can formulate any kind of criticism, theory, humor, hypocrisy, and absurdity so clearly, all without necessarily making a commitment or even actually submitting to form. With radical frankness, drawing speaks a direct language, which constructs nonchalantly invented, reinterpreted, and paraphrased worlds. The drawing communicates virtually without any restraint, as if the drawn interpretation of what is seen and / or imagined were completely self-evident. It is therefore hardly surprising that drawing has always played such a fundamental role in times of artistic departure, such as can be seen in the examples of Paul Klee, Lee Lozano or Robert Crumb. Or to express it in the words of Vincent Van Gogh: “What does drawing mean? How does one start? It is nothing more than to pave the way through an invisible steel wall.” [2]

With this in mind, we are looking forward to the latest results of perforated steel walls by Bill Adams, Claus Böhmler, Jesuis Crystiano and Joe Neave.

-Inci Yilmaz

[1] Friedrich Teja Bach, Wolfram Pichler (eds.), Öffnungen. Zur Theorie und Geschichte der Zeichnung, Munich 2009, p. 16.
[2] Antonin Artaud, quoted from a letter from Vincent Van Gogh in: Antonin Artaud, OEuvres complètes, Vol. 30, p. 40, quoted from: Jaques Derrida, Aufzeichnungen eines Blinden, Munich 2008, p. 49 (Notes).