We are proud to announce the first collaboration show 'Gelenk & Zwischenton' (‘Joint & Overtone’) of Klaus Merkel and Anselm Stalder at our gallery!

Painting is the very topic of 'Gelenk & Zwischenton' and brings together two artists who - through a very systematic approach - achieve exceedingly contrasting results.

For the very first time Elisabeth Kaufmann Gallery presents works of the German artist Klaus Merkel.
Since his so-called ‘Katalogbilder’, shown for the first time in Cologne and in Stuttgart in 1993, he has been known as an outstanding painter, whose large-sized oil paintings uncompromisingly investigate the conceptual tasks of painting. Klaus Merkel was born in Heidelberg (DE) in 1953 and lives and works in Freiburg (DE). He received his education at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe. In 2006 he was awarded the price of the endowment Kurt Lehmann, Staufen. Merkel shows his work in Germany and abroad, including Switzerland, on a regular basis.

Klaus Merkel, Stage, 2007, 130 x 115 cm

'Gelenk & Zwischenton' features three works from his extensive oeuvre. Colour surfaces and lines, which are rich in contrast, play on the themes of figure and background, centre and border and the manifold possibilities of painting gestures. The formation of the painting can be followed and is at the same time its topic. The work becomes self-referential in its substance. By repainting it Merkel recycles his formal vocabulary. The unicum is subject to a serialisation but never loses its autonomy. 'Gelenk' (2006) - the biggest work of the trilogy and originally attached to a wooden construction which loomed into the exhibition space – cotters painted and empty surfaces to a spatial cluster-like formation. By reiterating analogous forms Merkel creates his own reference system which grants an emblematic linguistic ability also to the other two paintings, 'Untitled' (2003) and 'stage' (2005).

Anselm Stalder, 2007, Untitled, guache on paper, 70 x 100 cm

Anselm Stalder's works, which have been shown at Elisabeth Kaufmann Gallery since the beginning of his exhibition activity, originate from exact planning and are meticulously realised.. Nevertheless, in spite of extremely elaborate forms they exceed the conceptual frame and persist on openness. Anselm Stalder, born in Rheinfelden (CH) in 1956, lives and works in Basel. After studying Art History, Ethnology, and Philosophy at the University of Basel for a short period, he had numerous exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad. Since 1999 he is a lecturer at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern (CH).

Language has always been a primary feature of his works and is essential to the eight 70 x 100 cm images shown at ‘Gelenk & Zwischenton’. The watercolours have their origin in a bigger omnibus volume and were textually adapted to the exhibition. Text abbreviations, which originally come from scattered notations, were processed through a layout programme into manifold usable matrixes. Being projected onto the paper they leave no tracks but let the painting unfold itself. Text and colour start to oscillate. In their fragile brightness the concentrated pictures stand detached from the concept, which Stalder held narrow: "The greatest possible narrowness permits only an opening." An opening into painting. Interactions happen between the different text fragments, between the painting and the texts, between the single pictures and in contrast to and harmony with Merkel's work.

Focusing on painting and its textualisation is - although the approach occurs from two different directions - the frame joint between both artists. In subtle nuances association areas open between the coloured areas, between lines and between the works - and leave an amazing freedom to the viewer.

Denise Frey