Claus Brunsmann is one of those artists which one would consider the ‘hidden’ gems of the Berlin art scene. Brunsmann has exhibited internationally and works with galleries and fairs around the world.
Ohne Titel, 2017, Öl auf Leinwand, 60 x 70 cm
Courtesy of the artist
What characterizes Brunsmann’s work is his ability to create his own voice though an experimental, yet deliberate choice of vibrant colors. His technique is his voice and it makes it possible for the work to speak for itself in its own private means. In the last twenty years of his career, Brunsmann’s work has refrained from being conventionally classified as either abstract or figurative; On the contrary, it follows the punk spirit of the 80s bringing in mind Kippenberger’s and Oehlens’s works which oppose the spirit of minimalism. The artist’s technique is equally shared between Action and Reaction as his painting never composes a linear composition but a rather antithetical, ‘blunt’ and yet dynamic relation which is encapsulated through the dialogue of colors.
Ohne Titel, 2017, Öl auf Leinwand, 110 x 90 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Brunsmann, wanting to refrain from any conservative technique-making and form views painting as a form of ritual; the canvas is the ‘tool’ he uses to create an arena of interplay where new and old intermingle.
In the work, one can see a multi dimensional composition where color variations appear plastic, almost fake only to be part of a larger synthesis which draws references from art history. The work is never serene, never self content; it keeps developing itself, and it’s a development which springs out from the various layers which compose its unique materiality. Balance is to be found within antithetical and opposing forces; within the allegedly kitsch and the conventionally sophisticated, the historical and the contemporary, the spontaneous and the deliberate.
The artist is the least interested in narrating personal stories or individual emotional experiences; in Brunsmann’s work, the artist is a moderator who lends the work life only to allow it to find its own substance. One is never really sure who is behind these actions. What is the most interesting for Brunsmann is the process of creation and the dialogue between the colors. It is remarkable how the artist manages to create subtle allusions of landscape which are however only part of the creative language.
In the work, one can see a multi dimensional composition where color variations appear plastic, almost fake only to be part of a larger synthesis which draws references from art history. The work is never serene, never self content; it keeps developing itself, and it’s a development which springs out from the various layers which compose its unique materiality. Balance is to be found within antithetical and opposing forces; within the allegedly kitsch and the conventionally sophisticated, the historical and the contemporary, the spontaneous and the deliberate.
The artist is the least interested in narrating personal stories or individual emotional experiences; in Brunsmann’s work, the artist is a moderator who lends the work life only to allow it to find its own substance. One is never really sure who is behind these actions. What is the most interesting for Brunsmann is the process of creation and the dialogue between the colors. It is remarkable how the artist manages to create subtle allusions of landscape which are however only part of the creative language.
Ohne Titel, 2016, Öl auf Leinwand, 50 x 60 cm
Courtesy of the artist
The artist finds the form through movement and his experimentation with color is the language he employs to explore the dynamics of potential forms and structures that the work can unveil. One must examine the work as a 3D invention which brings together various stages of life, not as a technique to reproduce naturalistic elements but rather as an effort to create a new life. It’s this balance which is in the end achieved through the oscillating aesthetics which bring their own meaning to the synthesis.
For more information, please visit: http://www.clausbrunsmann.de
For more information, please visit: http://www.clausbrunsmann.de