“This small painting is a study for a much larger painting. I hardly ever do a study but with this particular composition i needed to figure out the exact position of each element. My idea was to interlock 2 ‘Question Marks’, my eternal theme. If you turn the painting on it’s side you can recognize the 2 ‘Question Marks’.”
“My girlfriend was very pretty and to show my love for her, I made her some colourful bracelets and rings. She suggested that I make more and I try to sell them. So I went to a small store on Madison Ave.(New York City) and the shop lady took all the pieces on consignment. A few weeks later the shop lady phoned me and said that fashion scouts from Vogue magazine had ‘borrowed’ all of my jewelry pieces for a photo shoot. I was surprised. Then a couple of days later Vogue phoned me and told me that my ‘rings’ were going to be on the cover of the October Vogue issue and if I was o.k. with that. Of course, I was. Needless to say that all my pieces sold quickly. And that’s when things started to happen. I, the young artist found myself making expensive ‘fashion jewelry’. In a way I felt like a ‘sell-out’. But I was young and went with the flow. Life is very strange!”
“Vogue magazine May 1987 edition. I’m the guy on the right laughing. I was probably laughing about the situation I found myself in. (Weird or funny…they used me to sell this tacky stuff). In October of 1987(that same year) my rings made the cover of Vogue. Life is hilarious sometimes!”
“This is a new Photo showing various angles of the “New Technique” Bracelets”.
“Little by little I’m finding photos of my earlier work and uploading these onto my website. This one is the third “Lines” painting i did in 1996. I believe that it is in the Nikolaus Fischer private collection in Germany.”
“This is the second “Rearview” object. I made the first one back in 1997 and it sold to a collector in the Frankfurt area. This object stayed in my mind and now 17 years later I decided to do a variation on it.”
“This photo was taken at my 2001 show at the Nikolaus Fischer Gallery in Frankfurt,Germany. For this show i rented a huge moving van in Madrid and transported my whole apartment to the Frankfurt gallery: I turned the gallery space into my party home showing everything that was in it, sound system included, of course! (This photo shows only a fraction of the paintings, objects and furniture that were featured). To pass the time at the inauguration I put on a 6 hour DJ set. The whole street was full of people pressing their noses up against the gallery window in astonishment. It was fun!”
“Everyone has “Genetic Memory” passed on to them by their ancestors. We can embrace or ignore this fact. This ‘automatic drawing’ depicts one of my frightening genetic memories, a nightmarish vision I frequently have. I have to tell myself: “Don’t think about this-Try to ignore it!” -This is a recurring theme in my work.”
“This is how the ‘Flow Light Object’ originally was presented in 1997. This pic was taken in my home(you can see the”Big Painting” and a few other furniture pieces as well).It was shown at an art expo in Valencia, Spain that same year. At a party in 1998 at my house someone accidentally SAT on the plexiglass construction(thinking it was a chair) and crushed the damned thing. The only thing that survived was the top part, which still works and is at my friend’s(Henar Diez Villar) house in Madrid.”
As you probably can imagine “painting”(or any work of art) IS it’s very own language. Words are not able to explain the total complexity of a “work of art”. As in a great composition of music there are just too many layers to interpret or to focus on as to be able to “explain” what the totality of the work of art consists of; it either “touches”- or “moves” you or it doesn’t- very simple. That’s why most of the time I do not comment on my work because i would have to write a book or two to explain everything that comes to my mind regarding the piece. I let my “gut-feeling” guide me and I hope that this “gut-feeling” is somehow transmitted to the viewer. Most of the time I do not quite understand myself what I am doing, but if I’m “surprised” by a piece, so will the viewer! -That is also when I know that a piece is “finished”.
I can give a short summery of ideas that went through my head while I was creating a piece(painting, object, drawing, furniture or “other”) but I could never “explain” the totality of content in the creation.
I find it interesting, though, to let the viewer be informed of what went through my mind during the creation process (I’ve also included the painting “12 TONE SCREAM” for reference purposes)
Here is an example of I was thinking during the creation of “12 TONE SCREAM”:
-……the painting will be based on the”Lulu Suite” by composer Alban Berg: the 12 Tone Composition method
-……the painting should depict sounds.-Shrill, Crass, Calculated, off key but ‘moving the soul’ and beautifully composed
-……it should be a VISUAL “12 Tone” composition
-……the grand piano will be on the lower right corner
-……the orchestra should be a crazy mass of colour and energy in the centre
-……the “soloist” should have her mouth open
12 Tone Scream (Oil on Wood panel, 122cm x 91.5cm, Dirk Marwig 2013)