Karl Bohrmann Drawings 1991-98 at the Pinakothek der Moderne

Monday, 22 January 2007 01:08

Munich, Germany - A painter, draughtsman, photographer, and composer of New Music, Karl Bohrmann (1928–1998) left an oeuvre that impressively testifies to his complex approach to art.  His drawings and paintings work with cycles and variations and they exist in the fascinating sphere between figuration and abstraction.  The medium the artist was most passionate about was drawings.

In contrast to Karl Bohrmann's prolific output, the number of themes seems limited at first: chair, table, window, receptacle, room, house, tree and female figure.  The current exhibition focuses on this group of works he created in the last years of his life.

In these rarely shown drawings the artist reflects on the hardly manageable tension between subject and object interlocked with the surrounding space.  Each motif is subjected to variations throughout the large series of drawings.  Time and again Bohrmann varies what actually is the same. And yet every single drawing is unique, holding a world of its own.  Situated in barely defined realms, all his subjects ultimately turn into landscapes.  As it turns out, it is interior landscapes that Bohrmann brings about in his very softly, yet determinedly executed pictorial expanses.  His lines reveal the process of their creation and this trait is emphasized by Bohrmann's reaction to the condition of the paper he uses, often shaped by traces of use, from having been torn, bent, written on, or stained.

 In his written notes Karl Bohrmann permanently commented upon and questioned his artistic position.  Like his drawings these ponderings are surprisingly simple yet complex.  Rarely does Bohrmann formulate categorical manifestations.  Instead, the artist sees himself in the role of someone searching and questioning (himself), careful always to avoid committing himself to a particular artistic stance: "Whatever one does must be questionable, must remain questionable.  And yet it must be done as a matter of course, without hesitating or questioning." Curator: Michael Semff. Exhibition of the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in the Pinakothek der Moderne until 25 February, 2007.

Visit the Pinakothek der Moderne at : www.pinakothek.de