Geometrie subtile – Katrin Bremermann

Art blog 26 octobre 2016 (extraits)

Un artiste nomade et un esprit libre.

Katrin Bremermann est une artiste allemande de la cinquantaine, encore relativement inconnue, mais dont on rêve de connaitre mieux le travail.

Elle a été remarquée, l’année dernière, par la revue Modern Painters dans sa section « artists to watch ».… le travail de Katrin Bremermann est le fruit d’une discipline aussi bien que l’œuvre d’un esprit libre. Il est à la fois lyrique et fantasque… il y a quelque chose d’insolite, peut être d’inattendu, dans la composition de ses oeuvres sur papier qui résulte particulièrement de la singularité de leur support enduit de cire. Même si la couleur et les formes que Katrin Bremermann, quand elle revient à la laque sur le papier ciré, peuvent évoquer parfois celles d’un Ellsworth Kelly, dans les années 1958.

Katrin Bremermann traite le papier comme elle traiterait une sculpture. Ses dessins deviennent vite objet,car elle travaille des deux côtés du papier, laissant des traces, des lignes et des marques, usant de la cire pour créer de la transparence…ses oeuvres sur papier ont une qualité  lithographique en même temps qu’ils rappellent les nuances subtiles et douces du béton ou celles des sols de marbre….le contraste entre le fond et les formes en laque qu’elle constitue et agence sur le papier est austère et harmonieux, à l’image du monde même de l’artiste…et le résultat final est pur délice…

J’ai envie de rencontrer cette personne,

Rachel Sitkin

An itinerant artist and free spirit

Katrin Bremermann is a 50-ish, relatively unknown German autodidact, who you are going to want to get to know. Last year she was featured in Blouinartinfo International’s Modern Painters Artists to Watch.

Bremermann has lived in Santa Monica, New York, the Virgin Islands, Paris, and most recently Berlin. Not merely an itinerant artist, she has, among other things, worked sail boats and opened a restaurant. Her artwork feels both disciplined and free spirited: it is at once lyrical and whimsical.

There are seven perfectly curated, relatively small, rectangular works on paper in the show–and a few more in one of Kerlin’s flatfiles. Each piece features organic, interconnected painted enamel shapes in a single primary color, which are bold and graceful, and the individual pieces are variations of each other–they are siblings. There is something unusual, perhaps unexpected, about the composition of these works, particularly as a result of their unique backgrounds, which I will discuss below, although the color and form of Bremermann’s enamel shapes brings to mind some of the non-geometic work of Ellsworth Kelly, such as his 1958 “Aloes.”

Drawings that are sculptural

Bremermann treats paper as a sculptural element. Her drawings become objects. She actually works both sides of the paper, leaving behind traces, lines, and marks, and she waxes the paper, creating transparency. The backgrounds of the pieces have an etched quality and the subtle, smooth hue and texture of natural concrete or marble floors. The contrast between the background and the applied enamel is stark but harmonious, a reflection of the artist’s interest in opposites. The overall effect achieved I would call stately delight.

The artist as poet

This is the portrait of herself that Katrin Bremerman. A refreshing departure from what we have become accustomed to in artists’ statements, the poem humbly speaks to playfulness, perception, isolation, imagination, and finally expression, all of which we see reflected in her work.

I create permanently
In a visual experiment, a game with myself
A magic moment, drunk on ideas
In order to exist, differently, with others
experiences of meanings and sensations
to embrace my dreams
with excess and in my solitude create with all available means
a visual experience necessary,
finally, to feel alive.

I want to meet this person.

 

Rachel Sitkin