Gustav Kluge
Good guy bad guy
15.01. – 19.02.2006

In its first exhibition of 2006, the Kunstverein is showing works by Gustav Kluge. Born in Wittenberg an der Elbe in 1947, Gustav Kluge has been one of the leading figures on the national art scene since the 1980s. His work has been honored with exhibitions in renowned galleries, art associations, and museums. Works by him have been purchased for public art collections. Between 1978 and 1985, he taught at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. Since 1996, he has been teaching at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. We are delighted that we were able to secure Gustav Kluge for an exhibition in Bremerhaven.

The artist’s preferred medium is painting. Gustav Kluge also works in other artistic techniques. Since the late 1970s, he has been producing
watercolors and woodblock prints. Later, he added wood and colored plaster sculptures to his repertoire. However, the focus of the exhibition in Bremerhaven is on painting.

In his pictures, Gustav Kluge addresses the abysses and contradictions of human existence. The title of our exhibition, “GOOD GUY – BAD GUY,” is derived from this contrast. His themes are timeless and therefore sometimes surprisingly topical. For example, an exhibition catalog from spring 2005 begins with a newspaper clipping about the CIA’s secret prisoner flights. The focus of the exhibition at that time was a group portrait of a team of psychologists at the Treatment Center for Torture Victims in Berlin.

Individuals or groups of people always form the content of the images. As a rule, they have no identity that can be attributed to a specific person. Faces and bodies remain mask-like, their posture, gestures, and expressions symbolic. The vagueness is intentional. It does not allow for quick interpretation or easy attribution of blame to specific individuals. The content of the images remains encrypted, even though Gustav Kluge refers to specific content in the titles. However, the titles are only one possible key to understanding the images and do not provide a definitive explanation.

The encryption of the pictorial idea finds its counterpart in the painting style. A morally expressive working method appears to be characteristic. Layer by layer, version by version, Gustav Kluge develops both the image and the pictorial idea in a painterly process, working intensively with color as a material. The clearly visible materiality documents the painting process. It is part of the craft process, which grants painting, namely the handling of color, its own autonomous status vis-à-vis the thematic orientation of the pictorial idea. The combination of the visible struggle in the painterly process of creation and the seriousness of the subject matter gives rise to the intense effect of Gustav Kluge’s works, which the viewer finds difficult to resist.

Kai Kähler

Curated by Jürgen Wesseler.