Elisabeth Sonneck, Introspektiv – Grüne Werte - Tique

Exhibition Introspektiv – Grüne Werte
Artists Elisabeth Sonneck
Venue Raum Schroth in the Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Soest
All images Courtesy by the artist. Photo: Stefanie Nafé.

…Reflection, in fact, implies control, and control can prevent the discovery of the unexpected in the element with which one interacts. … The choice of using a set of defined rules in her creative game – paper, oil painting, long brushstrokes, square format or, more frequently, the paper roller – could suggest a reductionism where the concept dominates the work. No. However well-thought-out these choices may be, such reduction of the artistic alphabet in no way implies a limitation of language within a narrow thought. On the contrary, it makes us even more sensitive to the combinations, variations and articulations of this alphabet. Every concept, according to Gareth Evans’ «generality constraint», has on the one hand a limiting function, because it encompasses several things, and on the other a multiplying function, because it applies to several things. The reduction made by Elisabeth’s preliminary choices is also therefore a concept that always opens up to the multiple, even the unexpected.

(Essay (excerpts) by Giuseppe Di Salvatore).

„Introspektiv – Grüne Werte“ (Introspective – Green Values) deals with questions of perception and the painterly production of colour – inspired by the green of Soest as a complex spectrum that encompasses subtle shades as well as contrary tones.

Elisabeth Sonneck’s compositions sound together like colour scores. She realises the vibrating colourfulness in many layers of translucent oil paint. The multiple staggered ends of the broad brushstrokes make visible the process of colour creation in nuances.

Painted on long, flexible paper webs, her special installation incorporates the tension of the material as well as gravity: as flexible sculptures, the scroll paintings lean, lie and hang freely in the room or are partly rolled up and stretched in front of the wall. Elisabeth Sonneck’s site-specific works emphasise the peculiarities of the space and make it an active player in the situation: in these installations, colour can be experienced physically.