HANNO OTTEN, FARBE

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FARBE
Hanno Otten

September 6th – October 31st, 2014

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“Color is the visual key to understanding our social reality. That is precisely what I find interesting about the question of color – that artistic, social, scientific and also cultural aspects and components come together.” – Hanno Otten

The current exhibition of the works of Hanno Otten (*1954) at | PRISKA PASQUER centres on the perception of color. Created since the mid-1990s, the “Colorblocks” and “Lichtbilder” series are photograms – a technique that creates photographic images not with cameras and negatives, but rather by simply exposing light-sensitive paper to light. The unique quality of the images highlights the subjective outlook of each individual beholder. This combines diverse impressions such as surrounding light conditions and reflections. The quality of the color in his radically aesthetic works anticipates the character of digital colors. The colors of the C-Prints from the “13 Farben” series are juxtaposed with two sculptures – “Philipp Otto Runge” und “Ludwig Wittgenstein” – that were already shown in Museum Ludwig back in 1998.

Hanno Otten was born in Cologne in 1954 and works in a wide range of media. “Color” has been an important theme for him since the early 1990s – he does not see it as merely an external factor but rather makes it an integral part of his works. His photograms are entitled “Colorblocks”, “Lichtbilder” or “real nothing”, while his sculptures and installations are frequently named after color theory pioneers such as “Johann Wolfgang von Goethe”.

The artist also explores the notion of color in his “color films”, “color theory” works and his paintings. Otten is featured in important private and public collections – including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Art, Busch-Reisinger Museum/Harvard Art Museum and Microsoft Art Collection.

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“Farbe ist der visuelle Schlüssel zum Verständnis unserer gesellschaftlichen Wirklichkeit. Gerade das interessiert mich an dem Thema Farbe, das sich hier künstlerische, gesellschaftliche, naturwissenschaftliche und auch kulturelle Aspekte und Komponenten treffen.” – Hanno Otten

Im Zentrum der aktuellen Ausstellung von Hanno Otten (*1954) bei | PRISKA PASQUER steht die Wahrnehmung von Farbe. Bei den seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre entstandenen “Colorblocks” und “Lichtbildern” handelt es sich um Fotogramme – eine Technik, die Bilder nicht durch eine Kamera und Negative, sondern durch bloßen Einfall von Licht auf lichtempfindliches Papier entstehen lässt. Die besondere Qualität der Bilder thematisiert die Subjektivität einer jeden Betrachtung. Diese vereint vielfältige Eindrücke wie das Licht der Umgebung oder Spiegelungen. Die Qualität der Farbigkeit seiner radikal ästhetischen Werke greift den Charakter digitaler Farben vorweg. Gegenübergestellt werden die Farben der C-Prints aus der Serie “13 Farben” sowie zwei bereits 1998 im Museum Ludwig gezeigte Skulpturen, “Philipp Otto Runge” und “Ludwig Wittgenstein”.

Hanno Otten wurde 1954 in Köln geboren und arbeitet medienübergreifend. Das Motiv der “Farbe” spielt für ihn seit den frühen 1990er Jahren eine bedeutende Rolle. Er betrachtet sie nicht nur als äußere Erscheinung, sondern macht sie zum Inhalt seiner Kunstwerke. Seine Fotogramme tragen die Titel “Colorblocks”, “Lichtbilder” oder “real nothing”, seine Skulpturen und Installationen sind oftmals mit den Namen von Wegbereitern von Farbtheorien wie “Johann Wolfgang von Goethe” benannt. Außerdem setzt sich der Künstler auch in seinen “Farbfilmen”, seinen “Farbenlehre”-Werken und seine Malereien mit dem Thema “Farbe” auseinander. Otten ist in wichtigen privaten und öffentlichen Sammlungen vertreten – u.a. im LACMA, im Houston Museum of Fine Art, Busch-Reisinger Museum/Harvard Art Museum und in der Microsoft Art Collection.

ROSTA WINDOWS

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The Rosta windows are the first Soviet propaganda posters published by the Russian telegraph agency ‘Rosta’ between September 1919 and February 1922 under the supervision of Vladimir Mayakovsky.
The Rosta windows dealt with political, military and economic themes and were displayed in the shop windows of Moscow. Rather than printed posters in the conventional sense, they were hand-painted by some of the most prominent Russian avant-garde artists of the time.
Vladimir Mayakovsky was one of the first Russian artists to devote themselves to the revolution and one of the most committed to it. He saw the political and artistic
revolution in the years following 1917 as being one inextricable unit. Mayakovsky
described the Rosta windows as “a nation of 150 million being served by hand by a
small group of painters”. He was responsible for creating roughly 9/10 of the texts. He was also instrumental in shaping the bold, stark-coloured, laconic yet dynamic forms used in the funny, but often grotesque and folksy drawings in a marriage of political potency and modern imagery.

EL LISSITZKY

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EL LISSITZKY


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Lazar Markovich Lissitzky better known as El Lissitzky (1890 – 1951)

El Lissitzky was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian Avant Garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the Soviet Union.

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