"Niele Toroni: Imprints of a No. 50 Paintbrush Repeated at Regular Intervals of 30 cm"
2006-10-09 until 2006-11-03
Galerie Barbara Weiss
Berlin, , DE Germany

For the second time Galerie Barbara Weiss is presenting Niele Toroni in a solo exhibition. This exhibition running during the monthof October, 2006, will include new paintings and interventions. In 1989 Toroni first gained international acclaim with his "Imprints of a No. 50 Paintbrush Repeated at Regular Intervals of 30 cm". This is more than just a work with paint and surface; it is an exploration of painting and an exploration of the medium of the picture. This may be a medium in a space, or the space itself, which assumes the function of the medium through the interventions. The painted works that are created in this way both delimit and open up space, covering the medium but also remaining transparent. The medium, whether it is canvas, paper or space thus remains “visible and legible” (Toroni).

The complexity of Toroni’s seemingly simple approach becomes evident when the viewer realises that no brush mark resembles another and yet they remain identical in expression. The diversity that Toroni sees enacted in repetition and continuity is bound to the “ever present reality of the work” and to the “location, the environment”.

The principle of regularity in Toroni’s method is given in the continuous spatial distances of 30 centimetres and also the temporal delay between each contact of the brush with the medium, defining both the rhythmical formal element of a serial application of paint and also the work process itself. Toroni repeats his brushstroke “in time and in space” (Harald Szeemann).

This approach was first implemented in 1967 at a joint action with Daniel Buren, Olivier Mosset and Michael Parmentier at the opening of the Paris “Salon de la Jeune Peinture”. Here Niele Toroni, like many other artists of his generation, turned against traditional painting and against the accepted role definitions of the artist and the audience, and of the work of art and the (museum) exhibition space. To this day Toroni defines his artistic freedom in the consistency of his approach.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for Germany

Other Important Exhibitions in Berlin

James Ensor - Museum of Modern Art Two Shows Celebrating Abraham Lincoln - Speed Art Museum Visions of Nature : Pastel Renderings of Nature by Paula Pearl - Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum Every 1 : A Group Exibition - Hang Art Daniel Lehan, Suzanne Moxhay and Nicholas Symes - Wiebke Morgan Gallery Dave Bondi : Suspended Animation - Tarryn Teresa Gallery Francesca Leone : Beyond Their Gaze - Moscow Museum of Modern Art Alex O'Neal - Linda Warren Gallery Call for Artists : ING Discerning Eye - Parker Harris