< Return to Video

Katharina Grosse: Painting with Color | ART21 "Exclusive"

  • 0:08 - 0:12
    [Katharina Grosse: Painting with Color]
  • 0:13 - 0:16
    [Katharina Grosse Studio, Berlin, Germany]
  • 0:16 - 0:20
    I got to write this poem down here on my wrist--
  • 0:20 - 0:22
    on my arm.
  • 0:23 - 0:25
    Stilton cheese.
  • 0:26 - 0:30
    I'm going to make a Christmas card for my
    friends.
  • 0:30 - 0:36
    One side of the card is going to be a photograph
    of a poem that I really like.
  • 0:37 - 0:40
    I've written it down on paper,
  • 0:41 - 0:44
    and I think maybe it's better on my skin.
  • 0:46 - 0:49
    When I started painting, I stopped reading.
  • 0:50 - 0:53
    In school, I loved to learn languages and
    read things,
  • 0:53 - 0:56
    and I really stopped that at the moment that
    I started painting.
  • 0:56 - 0:57
    And I didn't know why.
  • 0:57 - 1:00
    It took me a little while to understand why
    I did it.
  • 1:02 - 1:05
    It's a poem by an Austrian poet,
  • 1:05 - 1:08
    and his name is Ernst Jandl,
  • 1:08 - 1:14
    and he's made a lot of really fantastic poems
    that are just sound, and...
  • 1:14 - 1:17
    yeah, they're super fascinating.
  • 1:18 - 1:24
    The linguistic structure urges you towards
    a certain order system
  • 1:24 - 1:27
    where things follow one another, which is
    very linear.
  • 1:27 - 1:31
    And I realize that painting does not have
    a linear structure;
  • 1:31 - 1:36
    but the synchronicity in painting is super
    compelling for your thought process.
  • 1:36 - 1:38
    [sound of the camera phone's shutter clicking]
  • 1:42 - 1:44
    Okay, we have to do it again.
  • 1:49 - 1:54
    It's very rare that you read something profound
    and fundamental on color.
  • 1:58 - 2:01
    Modern critics write about the concept
    on what you can see
  • 2:01 - 2:05
    or what is being dealt with politically or
    socially;
  • 2:05 - 2:10
    but, painting being discussed in the realm
    of color is never happening.
  • 2:13 - 2:19
    Interestingly enough, color is an element
    in painting that has always been discussed
  • 2:19 - 2:23
    from the 17th Century on--in the big academy
    in Paris or wherever--
  • 2:23 - 2:29
    as the female, less stable, less clear, and
    not so intelligent element of painting,
  • 2:29 - 2:33
    whereas the concept--the line, the drawing--
  • 2:33 - 2:39
    is more the male, the clear, the progressive,
    and intelligent part of the artwork.
  • 2:46 - 2:51
    I think that I am dealing with this heritage
    in an interesting way,
  • 2:51 - 2:56
    because color is such a very very important
    spatial feature in my work,
  • 2:56 - 3:00
    in relationship to the crystallized and built
    and materialized world
  • 3:00 - 3:04
    that is part of what I do when I paint in
    space.
  • 3:05 - 3:09
    I like this anarchic potential of color.
  • 3:09 - 3:15
    I see it very clearly that color is actually
    taking away the boundary of the object.
  • 3:15 - 3:18
    So there is no subject-object relationship
    anymore.
  • 3:18 - 3:23
    And I think that's maybe what color has the
    potential to make us think.
  • 3:23 - 3:27
    [Johann König Gallery, Berlin, Germany]
  • 3:28 - 3:32
    It's the first time I'm showing works on paper
    in a show.
  • 3:32 - 3:36
    When I came back from my annual surfing holiday,
    [LAUGHS]
  • 3:36 - 3:40
    I started with works on paper and I kept going.
  • 3:41 - 3:42
    And I found it very interesting
  • 3:42 - 3:45
    and I could develop a lot of things very fast.
  • 3:45 - 3:48
    All the different actions go together on one
    surface,
  • 3:48 - 3:50
    so it's a little bit like violence in a movie,
  • 3:50 - 3:53
    which kind of accelerates time and compresses time.
  • 3:53 - 3:57
    So, shortening the process of thinking and
    acting.
  • 3:58 - 4:02
    Also, it's without resistance to work on these
    small formats
  • 4:02 - 4:06
    as opposed to the large pieces where the material
    resistance is very strong
  • 4:06 - 4:10
    and makes the painting less fluid and mobile.
  • 4:12 - 4:15
    What I'm doing with my work is to kind of
    grasp some of those
  • 4:15 - 4:18
    fast thoughts that run through my brain,
  • 4:18 - 4:21
    and maybe painting is one of the ways to actually
  • 4:21 - 4:25
    make those visible and understandable for myself.
Title:
Katharina Grosse: Painting with Color | ART21 "Exclusive"
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Extended Play" series
Duration:
04:41

English subtitles

Revisions