EOIN LLEWELLYN
COLLISIONS – THE END OF THE NIGHT
RECENT WORKS 10. DEC 2011 – 12. FEB 2012
Video interview with Irish artist Eoin Llewellyn in his studio in Berlin with Detlef Stein on the occasion of the exhibition “Collisions” which was held in September 2011 in the Theatergalerie Bremen.
„Oh, that is really beautiful!“ ist ein Satz, den sich wohl die wenigsten Künstler bei der Begegnung ihrer Werke mit dem Betrachter wünschen. Irritierend, provokant, innovativ, konzeptionell, verstörend sind eher Adjektive, die viele zeitgenössische Künstler als Wirkung ihrer Arbeit anstreben. Anders Eoin Llewellyn. Er möchte Fakten verwandeln in Schönheit, das, so sagt er, sei eigentlich schon alles. So einfach, so schwierig. Denn ästhetische Schönheit, nicht gleichzusetzen mit Oberflächlichkeit, ist für den Künstler Llewellyn eine der größten Herausforderungen. Das gelingt ihm, indem er Geschichten erzählt, die zusammengesetzt sind aus Fragmenten der Erinnerung, meist inspiriert durch alte Fotografien, Magazinausschnitte, Fahndungsfotos, die er beispielsweise auf Flohmärkten ersteht und ins einundzwanzigste Jahrhundert übersetzt mit Farben, wie sie schon Velasquez oder Goya genutzt haben. Eine Kollision, die eine fast beunruhigende bildimmanente Spannung erzeugt und den Betrachter gleichsam mit Schönheit „einseift“. Er bannt unsere Aufmerksamkeit mit dramatischen Szenen: Ein Flugzeug (die Vorlage ist eine Fotografie von 1930), dessen Pilot versucht, in die Stratosphäre einzudringen und niemals zurückkommt. Ein New Yorker Börsenmakler, der nach Abschluss eines „Riesendeals“ mit einer Herzattacke auf der 42ndstreet zusammenbricht. Eine scheiternde Hollywoodblondine, die, um zu überleben, ins Pornofach wechselt. Eine weltverändernde Verschwörung dreier Mächtiger an einer Art Kamin, aus der im Rauch eine weibliche Figur aufsteigt. Der Poet in dem Augenblick der Erkenntnis, dass er niemals erfolgreich sein wird. Oder das Hochzeitspaar mit einem geheimnisvollen Dritten an der Seite. Reale Vorlage und Fiktion vermischen sich, kollidieren und wie eine Kollision beschreibt Llewellyn auch den Schaffensprozess: Ein innerer Kampf und die große Schwierigkeit, den Moment festzulegen, in dem er ein Bild für vollendet erklärt. Brüche wie sichtbare Konstruktionslinien und durchscheinende Leinwand sind wesentliche Elemente in seinem Werk. Starke Dichte und gleichzeitige Transparenz, die uns oft bis auf den Bild-Untergrund blicken lassen; auf reale Persönlichkeiten, die alle wirklich existiert haben und die er, fasziniert von den alten, zufällig entdeckten Fotografien, mit neuem Leben erweckt. Die dargestellten Figuren sind dabei so festgehalten, dass sie an Szenenbilder aus Bühnenstücken erinnern und, ebenso wie diese, die hohe Kunst des Erzählens zelebrieren. Die uns sowohl als Publikum als auch als Bildbetrachter immer wieder gespannt anregt und oft auch mit Fragen zurücklässt. Die glücklicherweise auch oft gepaart ist mit schlichter Schönheit, jenseits von Oberfläche und Banalität. Ein weiterer Bezug zum Theater ist das intensive Forschen des Künstlers an alten Stoffen, das Experimentieren bei präziser Beherrschung des Handwerks und das immer wieder Übersetzen in eine neue Realität, die so zu einer gefühlvollen, tiefgreifenden Erfahrung werden kann. Annette Schneider, Kuratorin Theatergalerie
Vernissage am 27. September 2011 um 18.30 Uhr mit einer Laudatio von Filmemacher Eike Besuden Ausstellungsende: 27.Novemer 2011
COLLISIONS „Oh, that is really beautiful!“ – a sentence few artists wish to hear spoken by the viewer who encounters their work. Confounding, provocative, innovative, conceptual, disturbing – these are rather the adjectives that many contemporary artists strive to elicit as a response to their art. Not Eoin Llewellyn. He seeks to transform fact into beauty and that, he says, is everything. Simple, yet so difficult because for Eoin Llewellyn one of the greatest challenges is to separate the aesthetically beautiful from the superficial. And this he has achieved, as a teller of stories pieced together from fragments of memories, mostly inspired by old photographs, magazine cut-outs, police portraits – some acquired at flea markets – brought into the 21st century with a use of colour reminiscent of Velasquez or Goya. This is a collision that creates an almost unsettling pictorial tension tempered at the same time by an aesthetic beauty that serves to allay the viewer’s unease. Our attention is drawn by scenes of drama ; an aircraft (the original is a photograph from 1930) manned by a pilot who attempts to soar into the stratosphere, never to return ; a New York stockbroker who, after sealing that elusive ‘huge deal’, collapses on 42nd street with a heart attack ; a struggling Hollywood blonde who turns to the porn industry as a means of survival ; a global conspiracy hatched by four leaders around a fireplace, from whence a female figure emerges in smoke ; the writer captured in a moment of realization as it finally dawns on him that he will never be a success ; the wedding couple with a mysterious third person by their side. Genuine original images and fiction are intertwined; they collide. And Llewellyn terms the creative process itself a collision – an internal struggle – the tremendous difficulty in fully capturing that moment in which the image is complete. Imperfections such as visible construction lines and transparent sections of canvas are fundamental elements of his work – a use of great density and, simultaneously, transparency that often allows us to gaze through to the base of the canvas. We are afforded a view of real personages, characters given new life by Llewellyn and his fascination for the old photographs he discovers. The figures portrayed are captured so frozen in the moment they become reminiscent of images of scenes from stage plays, with that same celebration of the high art of narrative that is present in theatre. Time and again this art of narrative arouses our intense curiosity both as audience and as viewers, often leaving us ruminating over unanswered questions. It is also paired with a simple beauty, beyond the superficial and the banal. A further correlation to theatre is the artist’s intensive research carried out on old material, his sense of experimentation alongside a precise mastery of handcraft and the constant translation of ideas into a new reality, which together make for a highly emotive, dramatic experience. Annette Schneider, Curator Theatergalerie Bremen
Sabrina Jung · Eoin Llewellyn · Enda O`Donoghue · Korvin Reich
Vernissage: Freitag, 12. November 2010, 19.30 Uhr
Um szenische Momentaufnahmen des Alltagslebens kreist die fünfte Ausstellung der Reihe
„Gattungen in der zeitgenössischen Kunst“. Zeichnete sich die tradierte Form des
Genrebildes, welches seinen Höhepunkt in der niederländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts
erlebte, neben dem visuell unterhaltenden Wert vor allem durch einen stark moralischen und
belehrenden Gehalt aus, so wird in den aktuellen, künstlerischen Bezugnahmen die
Auseinandersetzung mit dem Bild vom Bild deutlich.
Sabrina Jung transformiert fotografische Schnappschüsse aus der Alltagswelt ihrer Kindheit,
indem sie einzelne Figuren oder Objekte aus ihnen herausschneidet, sie in andere
Aufnahmen einschleust und so neue Zusammenhänge und untergründige Geschichten
entstehen lässt. Mit dem Vorgang des Verschmelzens von tatsächlich Erlebtem und
fiktionalen Bildwelten verweist sie auf das Wahrnehmungsphänomen der falschen
Erinnerung.
Eoin Llewellyn stellt in seinen Gemälden zwischenmenschliche Szenen persönlicher Intimität
denen des Kampfes und körperlicher Gewalt gegenüber. Auch er bedient sich vorhandener
Bildarchive, wenn er Standbilder von Filmklassikern in der Farbmanier alter Meister wie
Velázquez oder van Dyck bearbeitet, um die physische und emotionale Präsenz der
dargestellten Personen in ihren jeweiligen Situationen hervorzuheben und von ihrem
filmischen Ursprungsbild zu befreien.
Enda 0`Donoghue interessiert sich für die Zwischenräume des modernen Lebens, welche
für ihn einen hauptsächlichen Zustand zeitgenössischer Existenz darstellen und sich zugleich
in alltäglichsten Bildern manifestieren. In seinen Darstellungen thematisiert er ein schnelles,
nomadisches Leben in Warteschleife und den Verlust von Privatheit in Zeiten von
Cyberspace. So stammt alles Bildmaterial für seine Gemälde aus dem Internet, wobei die ins
Bild aufgenommene Pixelung und andere digitale Störungen dem alten Handwerk der Malerei
das Vertraute nehmen.
Korvin Reich zeigt in seinen Zeichnungen und Collagen aus gefundenen Bildern die
Brüchigkeit des alltäglichen, scheinbar ganz normalen Lebens auf. Mit großer Liebe zum
hintersinnigen Humor verschiebt er Situationen, Handlungen und Zusammenhänge und
erschafft so gänzlich Unerwartetes und doch allzu Vertrautes. Die bildlichen Ebenen
kombiniert er mit subtilen Texten, wodurch beim Betrachten neue Räume entstehen und das
ursprüngliche Bild ins Wanken gerät.
Ausstellungsdauer: 13. November bis 5. Dezember
Sonntag, 21. November, 19.30 Uhr
„Projektionen”, kuratiert von Karin Albers
Sonntag, 5. Dezember, 19.30 Uhr
Finissage mit Künstlergespräch und Auslosung der Kunstlotterie
kunstraum t27
Thomasstr. 27
12053 Berlin
Tel.: 030 – 5682 1964
info@kunstraumt27.de
www.kunstraumt27.de
Öffnungszeiten:
Mi – So: 15:00 – 19:00 Uhr
(Below will be an ongoing essay on what concerns me in painting)
For the past 3 years I have studied the palette and techniques of Diego Velázquez through the books by the Prado technical specialist Carmen Garrido. The lead white grounds applied with large knives in sweeping strokes over which evasive thin sketches are mapped out and scumbled with a mix of lead white skin, containing vermillion, ochre and varying impurities. Over this Calcite sun oil glazes are placed with both a delicate and aggressive thrust and caress of the brush. All rising to a cresendo of virtuoso aesthetics - an entity that defies the material origins of the paint and linen used to create it.
It is this belief in the entity of the painting that brings me back to try and make my own efforts- a possible glimpse of this breathing surface. A surface that entraps within the terrain of the lead white and glass of the glaze a possible reality that surpasses the photographic to the living power of material presence.
Although the area I have chosen to refence in terms of palette and application is Velázquez, Titian, Van Dyck and Frans Hals,Ribera,Carriere,Degas to name a few, the ultimate aim for the image lies within the question of a new painted reality.
This question then turns me to Degas, Picasso and in turn to Bacon and Giacommetti. I quote from the book Picasso and Bacon where it is made clear that Bacon took Picasso’s subversion of reality and tried to bring this pictorial philosopy further in his own work.-‘ In spite of many frienships with eminent members of the surrealist group,Picasso too had at a very early stage rejected out of hand any assimilation of his work to the aesthetics of the movement -1: “Some called my work at that time ‘Surrealist’. I am not a Surrealist. I’ve never been outside the real. I’ve always stayed at the heart of the real”-2 Picasso moreover remarked: “That’s how Surrealism did so much damage. They completely neglected what’s important- painting –and stressed bad poetry, the kind of poetry that a sallow girl finds more poetic than a girl in good health…. They didn’t understand what I understood by ‘Surrealism’…: something more real than reality”.-2
Another way of looking at this point is –A painting does not mean something, it is something.”You realise that you cant represent reality at all” says Richter, “that what you make represents nothing but itself, and therefore is itself reality.”
While my images have not arrived at this painterly reailty fully there are glimpses of this allusive capturing of what Bacon would call the other in the supple psychlogical renderings of the head and the decisions to leave areas of canvas bare to increase the potency of the falsehood of the reality being painted.
Which I believe only acts to increase the power of the paints presence within the figures inhabiting the space of the canvas.
Similar to the descriptive passages in Bacon’s work like the lightbulb,the arrow or the lettraset typography these are facts which amplify the viscuous alternative reality of the figures painted. While the works at the present time are still grounded in the loose application of a somewhat faithful realisim, it is my intention that I learn from the old masters and on that foundation begin to gradually build upon this strata.
One can only hope with time that the two will fuse into a rewarding exploration of paint and the question of the image and the human figure and give way to a new path.
WHY DO I PAINT ?
Well it’s not for the money that’s for sure. But I think the reason is that nothing in my life seems to have retained my interest for such a long period of time as painting. Outside of food and film of course! Its not that I have painted non stop for 17 years its just the one language and craft I have continually returned back to.
It’s the sheer quality of the craftsmanship that keeps talking to me when I visit the Prado or the Gemeldegalerie.
It’s the directness of the act in a world which is filled with so much useless material, lies and veiled appearance in both life and art forms, Painting is the indelible stain on the surface that cannot be rubbed out. The entrapment of the act and the future viewers gaze in the same space.
Destroying space and time as we know it, acting not only as a portal to the image depicted, but also, the artists temperment and the air of the time.
If I can look for hours at the copious mounds of flesh on a Rubens thigh from 1638 Ruben’s painting.The main one I am thinking of is in the Gemaldegalerie - Andromeda is a tour de force of paint becoming flesh.
Or to breath the quietness and homely familiarity of the objects in a Chardin stilllife since I was 9 or 10 theres got to be something happening!
Or to experinece the presence of a Velazquez portrait and to sense you know the person posing , or will come to know them.
To Love and destroy at the same time with Picasso. To unmake and remake reality in his own form leading to the same flux found in Francis Bacon. The escaping of paint from the figure or the lifeform being vanquished from the head is a fantastic experience. Within Bacon’s offerings in paint. It is as if the paint refuses to be just paint – just as the image refuses to be just an image. It must be more, or, as Bacon said…… to be continued
The question of the image and what image to explore
Opening 9th October 7pm – 9pm
Exhibition runs from 9th Oct – 7th Nov 2010
The present body of paintings is a study in the restrained palette of 15th-17th century painters such as Velázquez and Van Dyck. Often times there are only six colors present in their work, rising to a maximum of perhaps twelve. Llewellyn is continually fascinated by the quality of craft within these works, and in reaction to what he sees around him in contemporary galleries and museums he decided to return to this approach, combining it with imagery he finds interesting.
Although the artist finds some painting of today exciting and progressive, his main interests are in the paintings from 1600-1890s. This is because of the sheer quality of the work, the simple directness of the act unimpeded by over-conceptualism, and paint’s ability to encapsulate that which words cannot.
This appreciation for the painting skills of the past, fused with the dislocation of both the figure and reality within the works of Bacon, Picasso and Giacometti, as well as the psychological power of the portrait, are the main themes explored in this body of work.
The images Llewellyn decided to work with in this show are of two main types. The first is images depicting tenderness between a couple in private where some bad fortune has been bestowed on them. The second group depicts staged physical aggression between two opposing figures.
Llewellyn emphasises that the application of paint must be delicate and elusive for it is not his aim to merely record, but to imbue the paint with psychological intent and emotion.
The artist works from many sources including found photographs, magazine clippings, film stills, police mug shots, vintage photography and from the live model in the studio.
“The connecting principle between the varying images I work with is that they offer me the opportunity to trap the presence of the figure or an otherness in a scene. This excites me and makes me want to expand on that otherness which makes an image last and suppresses pictorial death.
An image, which holds the potential when fused with paint to destroy its photographic origin.”
Llewellyn’s work has been exhibited throughout Ireland, England and Germany and is found in both private and public collections throughout the world.
