Artist Statement

 

 

 

Painting is the real big challenge in my life. I am very happy because I never wanted to be anything else but a painter. And the story of my life offers endless material to me.

I was born in the southwest industrial city Ludwigshafen/Rhein/Germany and grew up in a time where the generation of my parents was busy with drowning the fright and aftermath of the war with consumption and the conception of an ideal world. At home was like hell on earth and in school I felt like a stranger. I wanted to break free from this limitedness with its prefabricated, dependent conventions. Speech, means of expression of the school, the society and my home, to me was always an instrument of those regimentations (about the origin of speech in the human brain they say the following: First comes the form then the content and what won’t match in the end will simply be corrected) and so all that was left was vision. The vision was a world of its own. I held on to that and didn’t let go of it to this day.

I create a picturesque room, by making the invisible visible. My works that appear very dramatic are always also directed to the shady sides and the mental abyss of the human existence, with all their facets: What lies in the secrecy and poses questions to me. They address subjects like destruction, pain, violence, horror and chaos. My worldly wisdom is the agitated one in which you cannot breathe. The lies, that all ways of life and thinking patterns, all legal systems are involved with, are after all just a reflection of the lies and dazzlements of the elementary mental relationships. During my studies in 1990 I began to paint my pictures solely in shades of black and white. In the course of time the initial cemetery-, night – and industrial landscapes changed to strong expansive, profound and bulky painting. I often deal with historical subjects, like the Industrialization, the history of the European witch-hunt in the early modern times or the Christianization and its consequences.

I live a very solitary and humble life: My world is small but my universe is huge. At the beginning of my studies I’ve had role models like Anselm Kiefer, later on it was Pollock and de Kooning and of course the many outstanding painters of the Italian Renaissance like Antonio Allegri, known better as Correggio and others. I left that behind in my work when I discovered that I have everything in me that it takes for me to develop my own aesthetic using my perception.

The human being has always the choice to develop their own conception of the world or to adapt the prefabricated conceptions of others. And in my opinion there are only two big interest groups of people, depending on their social position and the viewpoint they developed from that: The ones who want to maintain what’s there because they profit from it and the others who strive for a change and want to explore the coherences and the conditions. In my artistry I chose the latter. But exactly this is my challenge, to face up and show who I am. In the end it’s the own emotional relation to the things that are surrounding me, that affect the own aesthetics. It is the recognition of the own life in formal (social and societal) forms of appearances.

My paintings are similar to a stage play. The stage setting – which in my case would be the paint – is kept simple on purpose, to allow myself to evolve my inner monologue – the form. But different from an actor, in my studio I go beyond the mere identification with my own figures. I live them.

Christian Moeller

 

 

 

 

Text

 

 

Dr. Andreas Vowinkel writes in the catalogue: "Pictures. Very far away; on the invention of longing for a sky of only flowers, the waiting until dawn and the trap of being apart." published by Baden Art Association, Karlsruhe, Germany and Art Association Braunschweig, Germany, ISBN 3-89309-083-5 "I allow a form more freedom, if I do not evaluate it with colours" (assign it colour)
(Christian Moeller)

The paintings of Christian Moeller exert an exotic attraction. Developed merely in black and white tones on large canvasses, the intense, attenuated and pushed movements draw the viewers attention into an impenetrable thicket of compact and transparent forms. They remain fragments rendered two dimensional, however they are in every section modelled multi-layered colourspaces. In no place do these brushstrokes evoke peace and resignation or inner balance in the circling, directed, elliptical or linear forms. More than that, the restlessness and shorthanded notation of colours, which is an intense series of signs and letters scribbled in extreme excitement comparable to a letter or entry in a diary and forming both a unity during the more distant process of reading as well as a readable message, is in danger of drowning on the canvass in a chaos of pictorial signs and endless spaces. Given over to the pull of cosmic breadth in the boundless universe, which is incomprehensible to human conception, single formed shapes reappear as unexpectedly out of the abyss as they disappeared.

The paintings of Christian Moeller generate their inner tension in this border area between the surface of the canvass, which reveals the traces of the set colours, and the pictorial depth of colour modulation in endless ratios of black and white tones in all thinkable values of grey to dark black to brightly sparkling flashes of white light. They invite looking. They attract and allure the observer to be reluctantly involved in the dramatic event. Even when he, with aversion and fear of the unknown of such worlds which do not promise beauty, or enjoyment of the aesthetic but probably dread and abysses, tries to defend himself against these, and in trying to resist, then still only looks into himself. The images guide the observer, once submerged inside these dim labyrinth spaces, left alone yet directed by the artist, as Vergil by Dante in the "Divine Comedy", to the world of the inferno as well as to happiness, where life is played out. The longer one stays in these broad painted spaces and moves through them, the richer and more surprising the discoveries of those images which start to come up in our fantasy, occupying our thinking recome. These are not the images which obsessed Christian Möller when he departed on his artistic incarnations, but our own images, which we discovered inside of us.

The canvasses with their large format contribute considerably to this. They exceed proportionally the natural scale of the body and the area which in the process of painting can be reached by the arms from a single position. The format forces the artist as well as the spectator to move constantly in front of the canvass, to change posture, and to change standpoint for painting or looking at. Out of the movement, which is not alone conditioned by the body, but as well, or even above all, manifests itself in the intellect, spirit and emotion of perceptual thinking, sensing and remembering, the abstract shorthanded colour notations condense to formed shapes with an inherent structure and an organic regularity. And the apparently impenetrable chaos of colourspaces gains order, direction and balanced stability. Therefore, each painting is necessarily the result of a timely work process. Within this process from the first notation on an empty canvass to the finished image structure, Christian Moeller lives through all the ups and downs of inner and external tensions, perceptions, observations and events he encounters in his daily life. He pictorially develops them to the point where he binds himself to one state after many solid and transparent coatings in compact, condensed colours and/or transparent, dissolved colours and leaves them where he feels he has found his inner balance, as he himself points out: "And when I see that this is in agreement with me, then I have achieved a lot…" (in: Christian Moeller, Wir Kinder vom Rhein, 1994, published by Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe)

Even when unexpectedly figurative allusions to people, landscapes or emotions appear, showing the intellectual background which might have occupied Christian Moeller while working, it is in the working process itself that his works gain their formal and substantial density, maturity and finality. This then shifts into an ambivalence of the real only in the state of internal concord between the artist and his work. It is the ambivalent autonomy of the picturesque in painting which reflects itself sui generis. And it is the ambivalence of content which draws its potential statement from the substance, structure and density of the artistic design of colours and forms in the tension between the abstract and the concrete in their states of reality. This ambivalence charges itself with real thoughts, associations and emotions, in whose images we can discover and recognize ourselves, the reality of our being, seeing, thinking and feeling. Christian Moeller underscores this tendency in the readability of his paintings with titles, such as those of the works shown and documented here:
"Stumpf ist Trumpf" or "Und schon wieder ein Tag näher am Grab" (1994), or "Neues aus dem Land der Missgunst und warum die Gräber voller Optimisten sind" (1996), or even "Nur noch Blumen am Himmel" (1997), "Bei der Verleihung des Staatsstipendiums für geistige Aufklärung erinnern wir uns an den Tafeldienst" or "Der neue Weg und der letzte Dreck und zur Gewöhnung an Arbeit und das Licht auf den Feldern dahinter" (1995)*
These verbal and therefore autobiographically motivated images rendered artistic and deduced from everyday experiences and critical observations of the events around him,
finally gain a dimension and legitimisation exceeding the artist himself in the sense, which Christian Moeller sets for himself: "What is crucial is seeing the relationship between oneself and the world."(Christian Moeller)
_________
"Dull is Trump"
"And Once Again a Day Closer to Grave"
"New from the Land of Grudge and why the Graves are Filled with Optimists"
"Only Flowers left in the Sky"
"At the Awarding of the State Scholarship for Intellectual Emancipation We Remember the Table Service"
"The New Path and the Last Dirt and getting used to Work and the Light on the Fields Beyond"

 

 

 

 

Biography

 

 

1963 born in Ludwigshafen on the Rhine, Germany

 

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Education
1986-92 State Academy of Visual Arts, Karlsruhe, Germany
1991 Student of Professor Horst Antes’ Master Class

 

Grants
2007 Goethe Institute Los Angeles
2007 Foundation of the Citizens of Ludwigshafen, City of Ludwigshafen on the Rhine
2003 Scholarship at Zeppelinhaus Berlin
2000 Fundraising group Kunst e.V.
1999 Kuenstlerhilfe Baden-Wuerttemberg
1998 Scholarship with the Kunststiftung Baden-Wuerttemberg
1997 Scholarship with the House of Artists Saarland, Saarbruecken
1994-95 Laureate at the German Prize of Art
1993-96 Studio-Scholarship with the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg
1992 Scholarship of the Association for International Cultural Exchange with the Academy Vytvarnych Umeni (Academy of Fine Arts) Prague
1990 Study trip to Australia

 

Solo Exhibitions (selection)

2008 Judgement Day, Vegas Gallery, London, England
2007 Underground medicine, Art For Humans Gallery Chinatown, Los Angeles, USA
2007 Kingdom come youth, Art For Humans Gallery Chinatown, Los Angeles, USA
2007 Sonnige Abbildungen der Wirklichkeit-Malen ist echt cool und man kommt in der Clique einfach besser an, Art For Humans Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2006 wie Gott uns schuf, Sportklubhelga, Berlin, Germany
2005 neinesgehtgut, Kunstkabine, Berlin, Germany
2004 Valdez, Drawings, Kunstraum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
2003 Ein Tag wie jeder andere, Rua da Rosa 17, 2 esq /Bairro Alto/Atelier Luisa Sequeira, Lisbon, Portugal
2003 was das Zeug haelt, Studio 1/Zeppelinhaus, Berlin, Germany
2003 trashcash moron morphine machine, Galerie Junghans, Cologne, Germany
2002 sognami il tempo all' indietro, L'istituto l'arte Malcini, Siena, Italy
2002 was, fuer wen, wieso, Raum fuer zeitgenoessische Kunst, Cologne, Germany
2001 Come un caldo bagno schiuma di zucchero, Galleria Farfalla, Bologna, Italy
1999 Heute, hier und jetzt, Haus der Kunststiftung, Stuttgart (with Axel Brandt), Germany
1999 Andys Nerven, Das Kunstforum, Cologne, Germany
1998 Ganz weit weg.; Ueber die Erfindung der Sehnsucht nach nur noch Blumen am Himmel, das Warten bis es hell wird und die Abseitsfalle, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany
1998 Team Araldi, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
1997 Jetset paradise monsterfactory, Art Association Carlington Road, Dundee, Scotland
1997 Assi 2000, Saarlaendisches Kuenstlerhaus, Saarbruecken, Germany
1994 Exhibition of debutants, Lichthof Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste Karlsruhe, Germany
1992 Akademie Vytvarnych Umeni, Prague, Czech Republic

 

Group Exhibitions (selection)

2009 I am by birth a Genevese, Forde Gallery, Geneve, Switzerland
2009 I am by birth a Genevese, Vegas Gallery, London, England
2009 Corrections, SomArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, USA
2007 Stop Fucking Praying For The Apocalypse, Art For Humans Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2004 Modellsituation Berlin, Landesvertretung Baden-Wuerttemberg am Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany
2003 Intershop SuedstattSued, Haus des Gluecks, Kunstraum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
2001 Mit leichtem Gepaeck, Zeiten der Liebe, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany
2001 Le parc des fleurs jaunes, Areal d'art, Nancy, France
2001 Wuerttembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany
2000 Gesellschaft der Freunde junger Kunst, Baden-Baden, Germany
2000 Galerie Schloß Mochental, Ehingen/Danube, Germany
2000 Kunsthalle Goeppingen, Goeppingen, Germany
1997 Staedelsches Kunstinstitut, "Villa Romana Preis 1998", Frankfurt am Main, Germany
1997 Das Kunstforum, Cologne, Germany
1996 Freundeskreis Wilhelmshoehe, Ettlingen, Germany
1996 Emy-Roeder-Preis, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany
1994 Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany

 

Bibliography (selection)

1994 >> Catalogue - "Wir Kinder vom Rhein", published by Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste Karlsruhe, a special edition of this publication appears as an edition of 100 copies, handmade cover, signed and numbered >> Catalogue - "Deutscher Kunstpreis 1994/95", published by Bundesverband BVR, Bonn >> 1996 >> Catalogue "Emy Roeder-Preis", published by Kunstverein Ludwigshafen am Rhein >> 1998 >> Catalogue "Ganz weit weg; Ueber die Erfindung der Sehnsucht nach nur noch Blumen am Himmel, das Warten bis es hell wird und die Abseitsfalle", published by Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe and Kunstverein Braunschweig, ISBN 3-89309-083-5 >> 1998/99 >> Annual special edition, Kunstverein Braunschweig >> Catalogue – Scholarship holders of the Kunststiftung 1998, published by Kunststiftung Baden-Wuerttemberg >> 2000 >> www.swo.de " Artist of the months March/April >> Kuenstlerportrait in den Badischen Neusten Nachrichten, published by Michael Huebl >> 2001 >> Catalogue "Mit leichtem Gepaeck", published by Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, ISBN 3-89309-097-5 >> 2003 Catalogue "was das Zeug haelt", published for the exhibition at the Studio1/Zeppelinhaus, Berlin 2003, Annual special edition, Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe >> 2007 >> Reproductions on Flickr, Youtube, Myspace at ART FOR HUMANS GALLERY Chinatown, Los Angeles >> 2008 >> 10Magazine- Spring 08, Vegas Gallery, London

 

 

 

contact via e-mail

mail@christianmoeller.eu

 

©-all copyrights by christianmoeller.eu, dem Künstler und den Autoren / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn / Alle Rechte vorbehalten
Vervielfältigung und Veröffentlichung nur mit ausdrücklicher Genehmigung des Künstlers. Die veröffentlichten Links wurden mit größtmöglicher Sorgfalt recherchiert und zusammengestellt. Der Seitenbetreiber hat keinen Einfluss auf die Gestaltung und die Inhalte der verlinkten Seiten. Er ist nicht für den Inhalt der verknüpften Seiten verantwortlich und macht sich den Inhalt nicht zu Eigen. Für illegale, fehlerhafte oder unvollständige Inhalte sowie für Schäden, die durch Nutzung oder Nichtnutzung der Informationen entstehen, haftet allein der Anbieter der Webseite, auf die verwiesen wurde.