ART-PRESENTATION: Erinna König
At first glance, figures rarely seem to feature in the art of Erinna König, for the artist focuses primarily on objects often including items of furniture. Now, object have played an important role in 20th century art, and it is worth asking just how König’s approach to them differs from that which has become commonplace since the days of classical modernism.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Thomas Schütte Foundation Archive
Marcel Duchamp’s readymades shifted the object from the real to the context of art. The surrealists’ use of the objet trouvé lent the object an aura as the bearer of a message. This enthusiasm for the object continued in the postwar era, and in the 1960s it gained further traction through the rediscovery of dadaism and surrealism. This fascination was also imparted to Erinna König when she was a student at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she attended the classes of Dieter Roth and Joseph Beuys, two artists who, each in their own way, operated on the fringes of conventional painting and sculpture and who both integrated objects into their works as intrinsic components. On entering Erinna König’s exhibition at the Skulpturenhalle, we are met with a strangely familiar setting: mirror, chair, bed, curtains and other home comforts. The works are based on pictorial and sculptural formats. Yet these are neither paintings nor sculptures. These are three-dimensional works, whereby what appears to be painterly also transpires to be material. There is always some object there as the basis for the artist’s thoughts and her compositional approach. Throughout the exhibition, there are recurring elements; three columns, three calligraphies, three masks, all in dialogue with each other across the room through their diversity of form. What they have in common is that they are, in their component parts, based on found objects. These component parts are integrated into the work in such a way that the starting point can barely be discerned. The relationships between them explain nothing. Nor is facticity all that remains. König observes the world, is struck by certain things, and endeavours to think them through – objectifying the experience, while at the same time protecting the enigma that surrounds them. She defines the elements of a work meticulously and seeks out unusual technical processes to create it. The spectrum of materials is broad and rarely repetitious. The calligraphies displayed like signs oscillate between the decipherable and the freely arabesque, in a similar vein as the pitch-black shadow objects on the wall. The characters appeal to the eye. As do the folds of the pink terry cloth, in which we might discern a face, as in the fabric-clad Nacht (Night). Erinna König’s works do not narrate a cohesive story, nor do they pose a puzzle that might be solved. The found objects form a multi-faceted image, or metaphor, in which all the parts form a previously unseen whole.
Info: Curator: Dieter Schwarz, Skulpturenhalle- Thomas Schütte Foundation, Lindenweg, Junction Berger Weg(Near Raketenstation), Neuss/Holzheim, Duration: 8/5-16/8/20, Days & Hours: Fri-Sun 10:00-18:00, https://thomas-schuette-stiftung.de
