Portraits | Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle 2021

Installation view

'Portraits' - group exhibition - at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle on the 1st floor

Leiko Ikemura

Sleep, 2020

15 x 27 x 18 cm

glass

4/4

Martin Creed

Work No. 299, 2003

56.7 x 85.3 cm

Photographic print

Ed. 8/10 + 1 AP

Stephan Balkenhol

R.W. Fassbinder, 2021

76 x 60 x 3 cm

Wawa Wood

Unique

Stephan Balkenhol

Lola Montez, 2021

76 x 60 x 3 cm

Wawa Wood

Unique

Florian Süssmayr

Damen und Herren, 2020

150 x 120 cm

oil on canvas

Florian Süssmayr

Die Frauen vom Finanzamt München IV, Deroystrasse, 2021

100 x 80 cm

Öl auf Leinwand

Janis Avotins

Peter Schjeldahl, 2021

30 x 40 cm

oil on canvas

Installation view

'Portraits' - group exhibition - at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle on the 1st floor

Leiko Ikemura

C.H.R., 2019

40 x 30 cm

tempera on untreated cotton

Leiko Ikemura

C.H.R., 2019

40 x 30 cm

tempera on untreated cotton

Installation view

'Portraits' - group exhibition - at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle

Florin Mitroi

30.VII.1987

55 x 42 cm

Tempera on canvas

Helene Appel

Brotscheibe, 2020

10.50 x 9 cm | 4 1/4 x 3 1/2 in

Oil on canvas

Sophie Reinhold

Basic portrait of a very young woman, 2017

77 x 60 cm

oil and marble powder on canvas

Installation view

For our portrait exhibition, using his inimitably strong, abstract-leaning style of painting, Czech painter Jan Merta has created a haunting portrait of the writer and poet Daniil Charms. Merta expertly ties his work in with the Russian avant-garde, as if he himself were a member of the artist collective OBERIU, or Union of Real Art, which Charms co-founded. It shows Charms' characteristic appearance, based on a photograph depicting Merta "inverted", which means "obrácený" in Czech and at the same time means "converted". A play on words that raises the question of the nature of Charms' conversion, who did not agree with the policies of the Soviet government, demanded freedom of the press, free cultural creation and atoned for this with arrest. Merta portrays people who are important to him and his painting, recalls them and initiates red-hot discussions. “I work in the field of literature. I am not a politically minded person, but the question that is close to me is: literature. I declare that in the field of literature I do not agree with the policy of the Soviet government, and as a counterweight to the measures existing on this point I wish freedom of the press, both for my own work and for the literary work of the literary men close to me, who form with me a literary group of their own.”

Jan Merta

Obrácený Daniil Charms / Daniil Charms – Inverted Portrait, 2012-2020

110 x 90 cm

Oil on canvas

Steven Claydon

Hebdomeros, 2010/2013

76 x 76 cm

etched and enamelled patinated bronze

unique

"A.O.: R" is the title of the new sculptural portrait by Thomas Zipp and stands for Abstract Object, on whose shoulders the artist places an aggressive rolling "R" like an angry pet, in the spirit of Dadaism: as if the work reflected our current situation.

Thomas Zipp

A.O.: R, 2020, 2020

64 x 54.5 x 17 cm

Acryl, Öl, Aluminium, Gummi, Lack on Leinen, Künstlerrahmen

back side

Eberhard Havekost

ohne Titel (K), 2018/2019

60 x 34 cm

Oil on canvas

Florian Süssmayr

Die Frauen vom Finanzamt München IV, Deroystrasse, 2021

100 x 80 cm | 39 1/3 x 31 1/2 in

oil on canvas

Installation view

Left: Thomas Helbig / middle: Ma Ke / right: Stephan Balkenhol

Stephan Balkenhol

Alice in Wonderland / Rabbit , 1989

154 x 104 x 64 cm | 60 2/3 x 41 x 25 1/4 in

Wawa wood

Unique

Stephan Balkenhol

Alice in Wonderland / Alice, 1989

230 x 138 x 84 cm | 90 1/2 x 54 1/3 x 33 in

Wawa wood

Unique

Thomas Helbig

Grosses Mädchen, 2009

250 x 205 x 6 cm

lacquer and oil on wood

Ma Ke

Game 2, 2012

109 x 79 cm

oil on cardboard

Installation view

Group exhibition "Portraits", 2021

Goshka Macuga

International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation, Configuration 19, End of Systems: Ada Lovelace, 2016

142 x 147 x 200 cm

Bronze heads and poles

Goshka Macuga

International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation, Configuration 16, First Man: Yuri Gagarin, 2016, 2016

34 x 37 x 205 cm

Bronze heads and poles

Thomas Struth

The Felsenfeld / Gold Families, Philadelphia, 2007

140.2 x 179 cm

c-print

Edition 5/10

back side titled signed

Installation view

Thomas Struth

Installation view group exhibition "Portraits" at the gallery, 2021; photo: Wilfried Petzi

Thomas Ruff

Porträt (A. Zeitler), 1998

210 x 165 cm

chromogenic print

Edition 1/4

signed dated numbered back side

Thomas Ruff

Porträt (T.Djordjadze), 1999

24 x 18 cm

chromogenic print

Unlimited

back side signed dated

Thomas Ruff

neg◊india_14, 2014

71 x 61 cm | 28 x 24 in

C-print

Edition 2/8

Signed, dated, numbered on the reverse side

Alex Katz (born 1927 in New York; lives and works in New York) is known the world over for his Pop Art-like portraits, which he has continued to make since the 1950s. Recurring figures in these portraits are family members and friends from his close environment, such as his wife Ada. Katz has also continued to make drawings in conjunction with these paintings, which have served as first approaches to his subjects before they were eventually captured in oil. While the drawings’ swift style bespeaks a rather intuitive perception of the portrayed individuals, the oil paintings captivate us in their intensely colorful two-dimensionality and abstraction on monochrome backgrounds, which allow the portraits to appear like icons.

Leiko Ikemura

Joseph, 2015

60 x 50 cm

tempera on untreated cotton

Leiko Ikemura

Cindy, 2015

70 x 50 cm

tempera on untreated cotton

Alex Katz

Mel, 2005

36.8 x 53.3 cm

Charcoal on paper

Alex Katz

Red Hat (Tarajia), 2013

55.88 x 40.64 cm

Charcoal on paper

Installation view

Not only the paintings of Sophie Reinhold themselves play with contrasting display and dominance to the reserve and incompleteness on the canvas. These forces are also active within humans and can therefore be understood on both a mental and a physical level. The willpower of the ego and its striving to expand its position while simultaneously desiring to hide, to conceal, and to isolate is a common phenomenon. Reinhold presents us with this game, this grappling, in a wholly idiosyncratic way. And her images bear witness to a deep love of vulnerable creatures – people who at once fight and flee, scream and fall silent, reveal themselves and hide, who love and hate. With reduced means and without putting their full physicality on display, she gives them an ominous platform, full of wit and charm. And sometimes, all that is left of these creatures is an aura, an echo of their energy – as here in Sophie Reinhold’s “Basic portrait of a very young woman” from 2017.

Installation view

'Portraits' - group exhibition - at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle