Artist: Simone Lanzenstiel
Exhibition title: augenblicklich
Venue: Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich, Germany
Date: June 26 – August 21, 2020
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich
Ephemeral traces of public spaces manifest themselves in the painterly positions of artist Simone Lanzenstiel. Taking up abstractions or fragments of our visual culture that she has found, such as faded graffiti on walls, the weathered facades of buildings or forgotten posters, she transforms these into spatially expansive painting. The title of her first solo exhibition with Britta Rettberg had already emphasized the aspect of temporality. It is about the kind of chance that sparks changes at the bat of an eye, about structures that are not intended to last forever, but which morph because they have been forgotten, because they have decayed or weathered.
The departure from conventional picture spaces as well as an emphasis on things unforeseen are just as essential to Simone Lanzenstiel’s art as her use of creative means that are not otherwise customary in art. The artist works with materials she has found, at first glance worthless, cast-off items, which she uses as picture carriers or for placing accents. In doing so, she keeps an eye out for mirror shards, plastic foils, newspaper fragments or things she finds in her studio, which are then given a new value as a result of her artistic intervention.
For her exhibition “augenblicklich the Berlin-based artist is showing her new painterly positions on wood panels which, owing to a particular hanging device in the back, reveal themselves to the viewer as three-dimensional panel paintings that float before the wall. Due to the grain of the wood, the wood panels shape the application of the paint, their lines becoming part of the composition and causing movement and dynamics to come about. Traditions of Abstract Expressionism and of Art Informel also enter into Simone Lanzenstiel’s painting compositions, which come about in a subtle balancing act between precision and consciously induced randomness. Upon the rough painting ground, amorphous cloud sprays encounter fine, graphic gestures, rendered for the most part in oil crayon or charcoal. These sharp, deliberately placed, compositional elements are redolent of things incidentally noted, of scribbles, or of graffiti on the walls of buildings, and conjure up associations with the calligraphic sign systems of Cy Twombly.1
Using scalpels and various sandpapers, the artist breaks open the painting surface, exposing deeper-lying layers of paint beneath the painted surface. Due to these partial incisions and deepenings, the wood panel becomes a relief upon which the notches continue as painterly lines. This deliberate injury to the painting ground leaves unintended traces behind in Simone Lanzenstiel’s art, in which the processual nature is enhanced, and the painting may be understood as a physical act. The creative process of removing and adding takes on a sculptural character, and a charged relationship comes about between painting and plasticity. The picture levels that result from this make us think of Lucio Fontana’s incised paintings and his spatial concept.
[1] The French philosopher Roland Barthes wrote about the relationship between picture carrier and incision: “[…] It is known that what constitutes graffiti is not really the inscription, and not its message, either. It is the wall, the background, the panel; because the ground completely exists, like an object that has already lived, with the writing coming to it like a mysterious addition: that, which is superfluous, surplus, placeless, is what disturbs the order; […]”, see Barthes, Roland, “Cy Twombly”, Merve Verlag, Berlin, 1983, page 22 (Translation: Elizabeth Volk).
Simone Lanzenstiel, augenblicklich, 2020, exhibition view, Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich
Simone Lanzenstiel, augenblicklich, 2020, exhibition view, Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich
Simone Lanzenstiel, augenblicklich, 2020, exhibition view, Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich
Simone Lanzenstiel, augenblicklich, 2020, exhibition view, Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich
Simone Lanzenstiel, augenblicklich, 2020, exhibition view, Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich
Simone Lanzenstiel, augenblicklich, 2020, exhibition view, Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich
Simone Lanzenstiel, augenblicklich, 2020, exhibition view, Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich
Simone Lanzenstiel, augenblicklich, 2020, exhibition view, Galerie Britta von Rettberg, Munich
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200613, 2020, Acrylic, pencil, charcoal, paper on cotton, 230 x 200 cm
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200622, 2020, Acrylic, adhesive tape on paper behind glass, 50 x 40 cm
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200617, 2020, Indian ink, pencil, acrylic, oil crayon on wood, 202 x 160 cm
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200514, 2020, Acrylic, varnish spray, pencil and paper on wood, 35 x 24 cm
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200608, 2020, Acrylic, pencil, paper, varnish spray on wood, 48 x 35 cm
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200220, 2020, Acrylic, pencil, charcoal, varnish spray on wood, 65 x 54 cm
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200423, 2020, Pencil, crayon, charcoal, acrylic, paper, varnish spray on wood, 210 x 172 cm
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200618, 2020, Acrylic and paper on plastic foil behind glass, 78 x 54 cm
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200518, 2020, Charcoal, oil crayon, crayon, acrylic, paper on wood, 66 x 53 cm
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200612, 2020, Pencil, crayon, acrylic and paper on wood, 120 x 135 cm
Simone Lanzenstiel, 200615, 2020, Acrylic, varnish spray, pencil and paper on wood, 99 x 77 cm