Colour on Brush in Space
Ruth Campau (b. 1955) is among the defining figures of contemporary non-objective painting in Denmark. Her works emerge from an intense engagement with colour, space and the act of painting itself. Campau does not conceive painting as a finished image, but rather as an open process that unfolds in the immediate relationship between artwork, architecture and viewers.
Characteristic are her vertically guided, elongated traces of colour, applied with a gesture that is both powerful and precise. These arrangements structure space, respond to architectural conditions and alter the perception of colour and form depending on the viewer’s position.
The exhibition presents Ruth Campau’s largest solo presentation in Germany to date and offers a concentrated insight into central groups of works as well as into the development of her artistic practice.
On the ground floor, a walkable, site-specific installation with Campau’s characteristic vertical, gestural brushstrokes on Mylar (polyester film) is created. On the upper floor, the multifaceted nature of her acrylic painting becomes visible: from a powerful orange floor work to suspended colour elements and works on mirrors.
Campau lives and works in Copenhagen. Her works are held in important public collections in Denmark, Germany and Sweden, including ARKEN–Museum of Contemporary Art, the KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg and the Malmö Art Museum. In 2020 she received the lifelong honorary grant from the Danish Arts Foundation (Statens Kunstfond), which also generously supports this exhibition.
The exhibition invites visitors to discover colour as a spatial, ever- changing experience–always new, always dependent on one’s own point of view.
