Year: 2011
Material/Technique: Paint on wall
Dimensions: 525 x 561 cm
This wall painting was created in situ by German artist Corinne Wasmuht in 2011.
When asked about this artwork during an interview she replied: “The Maki building seems very ‘light’ and ‘airy’ and very bright inside, too. So my idea was to work on this basis and to ‘open up’ the inside of the building to the outside with a wall painting.”
Then she continued to talk about the meaning of this painting: “my work of art is intended to stand on its own. It is neither just a part of the architecture nor a piece of decoration. I see the relation of architecture and art more like an interaction. To me, the building is like a stage for the artwork. Architecture and art have a different angle, but hopefully they enhance each other so that there is some sort of climax.”
Lastly about the meaning of art: “In my understanding, art in general is like a window to a parallel world – to something that could also be. Every creative process has this dimension of developing something new: whether it is a new way of language, painting, composition or any type of artistic expression. I think scientific innovation, in this respect, is similar to artistic innovation – so it makes sense to have works of art on a Campus of pharmaceutical research and innovation.”
Corinne Wasmuht’s large paintings usually gather and connect multiple images to create new perspectives. She begins by selecting photographs from both her collection and the internet. She then paints several images atop one another, resulting in near-abstract compositions. The images bring a narrative quality to the painting, but the layering flattens them out, eliminating any sense of depth. Discernable objects disintegrate into fields of colors and shapes, and figures shift into abstract forms. The overall composition has a shiny finish from the initial polishing.
Artist
Wasmuht, born in Dortmund in 1964, is living and working in Berlin and Karlsruhe. Her works deals with issues such as globalization, economic crisis, the proliferation of technology, and modern warfare.
She studied painting at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf. Since 2006 she has been appointed to a professorship at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe. In 2011 she participated at the 54th edition of the Biennale di Venezia. Her works are exhibited in international private and public collections, such as the Albright Knox Art Gallery Buffalo, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main or the Kemper Art Museum San Louis.
Wasmuht’s work finds its origins in imagery sourced from the internet that she collects, re-arranges, and then paints onto mural-sized paintings in multiple layers, whose detail is apparent only when the viewer comes closer to the work. Layer upon layer of varnish adds brightness to her colors, suggestive of the backlighting of HD televisions and computer monitors.
Her paintings create a unique kind of illusory space, both abstract and fixed in recognizable form, and somehow almost tangible.
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