The works of Peter Grosz have always been rough, raw, harsh, characterized by an unwieldy power and not necessarily readily accessible. The use of colour does not change that fact, not even pink is able to soften the works.
The whole process of painting is often seen in these pictures, starting with the base of the painting surface, which is more than just a canvas, throughout the whole process using the techniques of collage and painting.
Things that have been glued on are often torn off again and reassembled differently. One gets the feeling that these pictures were a major effort, that it was a struggle, almost an act of violence. And that, what we as viewers in the end get to see, seems to be only a pause. A state of intermediacy, hard-earned. These hard-earned shapes are mostly situated in a lineal structure, being lines themselves. Sometimes thick and strong, they seem to legitimately belong there, sometimes flowing, thin and fine, coming from somewhere, going anywhere. The line – sometimes delimiting, sometimes retentive, sometimes clotting, forming centres. A net, keeping it all together – or perhaps not.
The sources of inspiration for this process of shape finding are the daily news and poetry. The latter being in the form of lyrics and music. And so it is not by chance that many lines have an effect like written lines – staves or poems. One also clearly senses a poetic background in the titles:
‘The No-One’s Rose’
‘The Thunderstorm of the Roses’
‘Memories of the Future’
‘The Silence of Survival’
‘Between Have-To-Know and Want-To-Forget or Want-To-Know and Have-To-Forget’
or the beautiful line from a poem by Paul Celan:
‘The Nothing Rolls its Seas towards Devotion’.
Peter Grosz likes to use what is available, the so called “canvas” or the painting base is often made out of the linen of worn out painter’s trousers – pockets, buttons or zips can often still be seen. One does not know exactly which colours were already there, before the trousers became a canvas. At any rate, as image carrier and co-designer of the picture, they were awarded with a new raison d’être.
Just as the torn-off edge strip of a large decorative painting for the Bavarian State Theater, where Peter Grosz works in his parallel life, the strips were of course meant to be disposed of: they were of use but not of any worth.
Peter Grosz recognized the potential of these strips, and has sewed them together with a certain rhythm, completing only marginally with painted details.
As far as the artist’s three-dimensional creative work is concerned, it is a logical as well as surprising and an unusual way to liberate the forms of his own pictures and transfer them into a third dimension.
An impressive living wall has here come into existence, full of changing shapes, which, at the same time are linear, figurative and graphic.
A wonderful addition and completion to Peter Grosz’ artistic expression.
I wish the unwieldy poetry of these works, openly attentive and curious viewers and all of us an enjoyable and interesting evening.
Thank you for your attention.
Sybille Nütt (in her opening speech to the exhibition ´Zukunftserinnerungen´in Dresden, 2010.)
The whole process of painting is often seen in these pictures, starting with the base of the painting surface, which is more than just a canvas, throughout the whole process using the techniques of collage and painting.
Things that have been glued on are often torn off again and reassembled differently. One gets the feeling that these pictures were a major effort, that it was a struggle, almost an act of violence. And that, what we as viewers in the end get to see, seems to be only a pause. A state of intermediacy, hard-earned. These hard-earned shapes are mostly situated in a lineal structure, being lines themselves. Sometimes thick and strong, they seem to legitimately belong there, sometimes flowing, thin and fine, coming from somewhere, going anywhere. The line – sometimes delimiting, sometimes retentive, sometimes clotting, forming centres. A net, keeping it all together – or perhaps not.
The sources of inspiration for this process of shape finding are the daily news and poetry. The latter being in the form of lyrics and music. And so it is not by chance that many lines have an effect like written lines – staves or poems. One also clearly senses a poetic background in the titles:
‘The No-One’s Rose’
‘The Thunderstorm of the Roses’
‘Memories of the Future’
‘The Silence of Survival’
‘Between Have-To-Know and Want-To-Forget or Want-To-Know and Have-To-Forget’
or the beautiful line from a poem by Paul Celan:
‘The Nothing Rolls its Seas towards Devotion’.
Peter Grosz likes to use what is available, the so called “canvas” or the painting base is often made out of the linen of worn out painter’s trousers – pockets, buttons or zips can often still be seen. One does not know exactly which colours were already there, before the trousers became a canvas. At any rate, as image carrier and co-designer of the picture, they were awarded with a new raison d’être.
Just as the torn-off edge strip of a large decorative painting for the Bavarian State Theater, where Peter Grosz works in his parallel life, the strips were of course meant to be disposed of: they were of use but not of any worth.
Peter Grosz recognized the potential of these strips, and has sewed them together with a certain rhythm, completing only marginally with painted details.
As far as the artist’s three-dimensional creative work is concerned, it is a logical as well as surprising and an unusual way to liberate the forms of his own pictures and transfer them into a third dimension.
An impressive living wall has here come into existence, full of changing shapes, which, at the same time are linear, figurative and graphic.
A wonderful addition and completion to Peter Grosz’ artistic expression.
I wish the unwieldy poetry of these works, openly attentive and curious viewers and all of us an enjoyable and interesting evening.
Thank you for your attention.
Sybille Nütt (in her opening speech to the exhibition ´Zukunftserinnerungen´in Dresden, 2010.)
