14 January 2012

Gesamtkunstwerk

New art from Germany at the Saatchi Gallery (till 30 April) - see it online too. Without knowing anything about the artists, I found the works largely opaque and aesthetically unappealing. Should have splashed out £1 on the gallery guide - but it you look online, all is revealed. It all explores a wide range of contemporary references, etc etc etc...

The poppy-head balloons are by Thomas Zipp and are part of a larger installation that includes framed drawings that you look at with your back to the black objects -
 Favourite was by Romanian twins  Gert and Uwe Tobias, who moved to Germany when they were 12 -
They print woodblocks (shapes inked in colour) onto paper and then glue the paper onto canvas. Their work shows evidence of folkloric traditions (and 1920s Russian suprematism and constructivism), and they parody and recyle all sorts of styles and quotations ... turning the primitive into the contemporary. "A collision between outmoded skills and a knowing postmodernity" says this article. One of their typewriter drawings is included in this article -

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