Introverted extraversion - extraverted introversion

by Stefan à Wengen (2013)

Translated by Barbara Wagner

The painter's interim loneliness in the studio is an essential prerequisite for the creation of his work. The writer, too, spends lonely hours in front of his laptop and lacks any social presence. Nevertheless, such lonely and, so to speak, introverted hours of work are not necessarily deprivation or must even be felt as drudgery occasionally. C. G. Jung in his psychological typology used the adjectives introverted and - as an antonym - extraverted. So painters and writers are introverted fellows too; they do introvert, even if only temporarily, during the period of their creative work. It is, of course, the simplicity of means that allows the painter his introversion; he does not need collaborations, specialists, technicians, or equipment that needs to be handled by more than one person in order to execute his work. And, of course, a hint of genius hovers over his intimate, introvert doing; the grand master painter every now and then endows the world with a new masterpiece from his quiet chamber whose emergence happened in complete secret. Or are these rather tricks and ruses the painter has to use or adopt in order to circumvent a certain inability here and there in the execution of his ideas that he does not want to reveal or even share?>> continue...

What You See Is What You Get? The Law of Spontaneous Composition

By Magdalena Kröner (2012)

Translated by Petra Pankow

The painting in question is monumental. Measuring 16x4 meters, it continues to grow as this text is being written. This unusually large and altogether unusual picture-project is the brainchild of Düsseldorf-based artists Walter Eul and Marc von Criegern (deckkraft). Photos show both of them together, in black and white, wearing breathing masks, at work on a canvas splattered with an abundance of painterly gestures. As if there wasn't just one but two Misters Pollock and as if Abstract Expressionism wasn't part of a rather remote history but of the immediate present. Photos like this suggest an art-historical continuity, which provokes instant opposition: What is it trying to be and what is it trying to become? Great artistic coup? Pure Megalomania?>> continue...