GÜNTER UMBERG Bild Länge - Breite - Höhe - Tiefe
4 Sep – 30 Oct 2015
Special opening hours during DC OPEN GALLERIES 2015:
Saturday, 5 Sept., 12-8 pm
Friday, 4 Sept., 6-10 pm
Sunday, 6 Sept., 12-6 pm
On the occasion of this year’s gallery weekend, Galerie Thomas Zander is pleased to present two artistic positions at the gallery for the first time. While a rich selection of photographs from Peter Hujar’s Night series is exhibited in the Second Floor, the artist Günter Umberg shows paintings from his group of works Territorien in dialogue with works from his current creative period.
Territorien are individual paintings installed at precisely measured distances to each other on the wall, turning the exhibition into a space of perceptual experience. The new piece Bild 1 Länge – Breite – Höhe – Tiefe consists of several parts, all aligned horizontally. The title is reminiscent of a coordinate system and thus alludes to a place, which however is not further determined. On the other hand, it refers to the many-layered philosophical discourses surrounding Günter Umberg’s work: Those discourses are the outcome of thorough investigations and experiences, ranging from medieval philosophy to the theories of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. In the Territorien the single paintings can be perceived as “individuals“ and simultaneously as parts of a community, where each object has been assigned its place, which it occupies, yet also seeks to escape from. This creates relationships positioning the viewers by means of their presence within the space vis-à-vis the Territorien, which oscillate between fixation and detachment until even the space seems to transform. Finally, seemingly assured territorial borders blur and hierarchies vanish, colours appear to dissolve and the works gain a new and unforeseen visibility, embodying art in its purest form. A further fundamental aspect of Günter Umberg’s work is his profound knowledge of painting as a medium, which he translated into a contemporary context and radically redefined with reduced means. From these considerations, his own distinct form of painting emerged, characterised by his acutely contemporary approach to painting without loosing sight of the traditional means of the medium. Through the materiality of their pigments the sheer presence of the colours engenders an effect of depth pulling the viewer in. The densification of colour leads to a transformation of the material, so that the paintings appear as if energetically charged. Günter Umberg himself describes his radical monochrome painting as follows: “My painting does not demonstrate, but gives room to an excited perception.“