- 15th
- November
- 2011
Art Fart
The first in what will hopefully be a series of artist reviews.
(Or rather, the ramblings and unsolicited observations of an art admirer)
Written by Fembot for Fembot’s Fancy Thats
Normally, Germans scare the crap out of me. Just hearing a German’s voice – especially when speaking English – makes me picture a dark den filled with perverts, writhing around, wearing nothing but black turtlenecks and licking spikey weapons with blood on them.
However, I think I’m learning to like them. Or at least appreciate one German artist in particular:
Charline von Heyl.
A contemporary German artist born in 1960, she studied painting with Jörg Immendorff in Hamburg and Fritz Schwegler in Düsseldorf (although a quick Google search yielded no apparent similarities in artistic styles).
Von Heyl moved to New York in 1996 and has been steadily showing work in the U.S. and abroad ever since. Right now, you can see the first museum survey of her work at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) right at 36th and Sansom.
Before this weekend, I had never encountered her work. In fact, I’m embarrassed to say, I had never even heard of her. Kind of nice though, because going in, I had no real expectations. Just an open mind and desire to see something new and unfamiliar. Which is ironic, because I immediately liked her stuff because a few of the 18 large scale paintings reminded me of something or rather - someone.
There’s something about the ability to remember that directly impacts the ability to connect.
Looking at this painting, I saw inflections of Lee Krasner.
Above: Greetings, 2006
And looking at this painting, I saw the familiar patterns and colors of Henri Matisse. I can’t say this is my favorite though, because stores like Marshall’s and Homegoods have ruined any paintings for me that contain wine bottles. Forever.
Above: Yellow Guitar, 2010
There were more than a couple of paintings in this show that I wanted to sniff. And many that I wanted to touch. But just one that I wanted to taste. Ugh, that red! How does she get it to vibrate like that?! You need to see this one in person to understand what I mean. It’s so juicy.
Above: Igitur, 2008
So go see. It’s free.
Charline von Heyl is now on exhibit thru February 19, 2012 at the Institute of Contemporary Art.
