"Painting on the Roof: Works Curated by Veit Loers"
2003-06-24 until 2003-07-25
Paolo Curti / Annamaria Gambuzzi and Co. Gallery
Milan, , IT Italy

The Paolo Curti/Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co. gallery presents, on Tues 24 June, the group show "Painting on the roof". The exhibition, curated by Veit Loers, comes directly from the Abteiberg Museum of Mönchengladbach, of which Loers is the director. It includes works by nine German artists, and the exhibition can be seen as a Manifesto of the new painting. These artists do not pay tribute to the large formats and violence of the post-Pop painting of the 1990s, but neither do they belong to the ranks of the "politically correct" art imposed by vogue-conscious curators. At the same time, we cannot associate these paintings, watercolors and drawings with the historical tradition of neo-expressionism. These works, perhaps, can be defined as neo-symbolist.

Most of the nine artists come from southern Germany. They come to grips with the idea of narrative art, though without any debt to it. They are interested in the concept of the icon, in the true sense of the term, that of representative painting. The images in "Painting on the Roof" embody a nomadic character that constitutes their force with respect to other experimentation with painting of this generation. The new often appears in the guise of the old. For this reason, these figurative works possess a symbolic, realistic, calligraphic lightness. But their foundation is formed by the pursuit of archetypes and the visionary gaze at the invisible that always permeated the painting of the 20th century, starting with Kandinsky.

Artists include: DIRK BELL, SEBASTIAN HAMMWÖHNER, THOMAS HELBIG, ANDREAS HOFER, DANI JAKOB, KALIN LINDENA, ASTRID SOURKOVA, GABRIEL VORMSTEIN, THOMAS ZIPP

The title "Painting on the Roof" can be interpreted as a reference to a condition of suspension between sky and earth, where ideas and images more easily take form, and then evaporate, even when one has one’s feet planted firmly on the ground, or in the art system.

All the artists in the exhibition live in Berlin, and this is important, due to the intellectual atmosphere of openness of the city. The artists do not constitute a group, though their work reflects a shared project and intellectual interaction.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by B. Kuhlen Verlag, with many illustrations and an essay by Veit Loers.

IMAGE:
Thomas Zipp,
Apostel, 2003

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for Italy

Other Important Exhibitions in Italy