Growing and fading

The exhibition has been prolonged until 29 January 2023

At first glance, the naturally colored, still objects of Sieglinde Bottesch (b. 1938) and the usually colorful works that grow rampantly into space of Bernard Schultze (1915–2005) have few similarities. But they are related to one another in their essence: both are located at the intersection between art and nature. That also accounts for their charm: their artificial forms convey a sense of living creatures and their transformations. The title Growing and Fading is the point of departure and the motto for this exhibition juxtaposing the works of these two artists.

The sculptor and graphic artist SIEGLINDE BOTTESCH, born in Hermannstadt (now Sibiu, Romania), has been, especially since emigrating to Germany in 1987, working with nature and its processes. Setting out from inner impulses, she records the interim stages of being, its transitions, without defining them precisely. Using Keraquick molding compound, plaster, and plaster bandages, but also China paper and natural materials, since 2000 she has been creating sculptural works that look like enigmatic, quiescent beings – sometimes reminiscent of animals, sometimes of plants. Her graphic compositions, too, oscillate between motif and abstraction.

BERNARD SCHULTZE Bernard Schultze was a cofounder of the Quadriga artists’ association in 1952 and became one of Germany’s most important exponents of the abstract style known as Art Informel. Despite being based on a production process guided by the subconscious, his abstract graphic works, (relief) paintings, and sculptures remain associative and point to dreamlike alternative worlds. In the mid-1950s he began to extend two-dimensional works into space sculpturally by gluing objects to them. He created his first fully three-dimensional object, a so-called Migof, in 1961. The artist from Schneidemühl (now Piła, Poland) uses that neologism for his creatures, which represent, in his words, “the cheerfulness that follows catastrophe.”