Thomas Bechinger
Malerei
03.10. – 21.11.2004

The Kunstverein Bremerhaven will be exhibiting paintings by Thomas Bechinger at the Kunsthalle from October 3. Pink-colored paintings measuring up to eight square meters test the viewer’s taste in color. What is the significance of color, and how can painting change color? “Bechinger’s painting is not content to reflect on its own conditions and the history of painting. His painting neither retreats into a self-referentiality of exhibited materiality, nor does it dwell on the problematization of the painting surface, the edges of the picture, or the relationship between painting and wall. Precisely because a reflective materialism permeates the entire painting, Bechinger’s painting is free: it is free of the naivety and arbitrariness with which painting is claimed as a private language; it is free of metaphysical implications, such as the image as a window to the world, representationalism, and illusionism; it is free of the banality of tautological didactics: “You see what you see!” Above all, however, Bechinger’s painting is free to work intensively with color. That is why it does not need to conjure up a contrast to figuration, to outlines and surfaces, because it knows only brushstrokes. It does not have to detach the color from the forms or conceal how it was applied, because it shapes the color that it creates with its application. And she unlocks more possibilities in the painting ground than just material surfaces or spatial illusion.” (Armin Schäfer)

Thomas Bechinger, born in Konstanz in 1960, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the Royal College of Art in London, and the Düsseldorf Art Academy. He lives and works in Munich. His works have recently been shown in exhibitions at the Städtische Galerie Lenbachhaus in Munich, the Kunstraum Düsseldorf, the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, and the Galerie Rupert Walser in Munich, among others.

Curated by Thomas Trümper.