Interview: Anselm Reyle

Anselm Reyle: View of Valley Of The Snake Ladies at Andersen_s Contemporary

Your first solo show at Andersen_s Contemporary is called Valley of the Snake Ladies. Can you tell a little bit about the title and the concept of the exhibition?

Yes, I always use titles as found-objects. This title is taken from an airbrush painting, because I’m a big airbrush fan. Sometimes when I don’t have a title for my show, I look for titles in the airbrush books I have. In this case I found the title “Valley of the snake ladies” and used it because I wanted to break this abstract and formal thing. When you read the title, you might get a whole other idea or impression of the show.

Then I of course have some aspects of the title that can be seen when looking at my works. So some of the works fit in with the title.

For example my horizon painting looks like a horizon in the dessert, so when you read the title, you start to read the painting from another perspective. Maybe that could be the Valley of the Snake Ladies.

I always try to disturb the abstract dogma in my works by working with a title. And it’s the same perception I have when I use drippings on my hardedge stripe paintings. They also disturb and break the abstract and formalistic perspective.

Anselm Reyle: View of Valley Of The Snake Ladies at Andersen_s Contemporary

You deal consequently with abstractions through a formalistic perception. Can you tell about your choice of motives and compositions?

Most of my pieces have to do with found-objects. That means things I’ve found or seen somewhere. For example if you see the colour combination in my horizon painting, it’s taken from a wall I saw in the dessert in Califonia. In an oasis village called “29 Palms”. They painted the walls with these colours. So I took a photo of the wall, and when I came back to Berlin, I had the idea to make a huge painting of it. I like the idea that it’s a very formalistic stripe painting and on the other hand it’s that horizon and landscape. So that’s a found-object.

Or for example this object (untitled, 2006, bronze, chrome, enamplinth (makassa wood) ed.). I found a little african sculpture on the shelf at my moms’ apartment. The only thing I did was to make it much bigger. I took it to a modelbuilding company. Then it was done in bronze. the last step was to have it varnished with a chromeeffect paint, to get this exact surface.

Anselm Reyle: untitled (29 palms), 2006. 625x285 cm. acrylic on canvas

In your works you so to say resurrect the modernistic tradition. Adopting from minimal artists such as Joe Bear, Ellsworth Kelly and Yves Klein and integrating the tradition in your own works. Why this interest in modernism?

Well, it’s hard to say. I had this interest in modernism, even before I started making art. Then I studied art and it seemed logical to me to keep up this interest.

I can’t explain exactly why. It happened in a development. I see it as an inspiration, sometimes more ironic, but mostly because I’m really interested in the classic tradition of modernism.

Speaking about ironic. Some of your object may be found cliché or even kitsch, in the way you chose your objects, and the way you combine the figuration with the abstract. But it still deals with a certain kind of aesthetic. Can you tell a little bit about that?

I think it’s right that I use these clichés. For example when I make a sculpture like the one in this show. I like the idea of clichés. To me it means that people found common sense in a certain matter. So I see it as an inspiration, and not negative.

About your relief works... they seam - at first - made very low-budget, in your insisting of using pvc-foil to make these monochromes. And in general your choice of everyday materials, concrete, mirrors and airbrush and acrylics. How much do you think about the choice of material? Can you tell something about that?

Sure, for example did I find this cheap foil at a studio of a friend. He wanted to use it for a project but never did. Well I hope not...

So I was very fascinated by this material. The quality - that it was so glossy. I’ve always liked the fact that you have to do very little to make it look good.

In this case, you really have a lot of interesting effects created by almost nothing. All the colours reflect and also it has a very psychedelic effect when you look at it from a close distance. A bit like on an acid trip.

The fact that this cheap store foil work is such a big contrast to the expensive acrylic box around it, is another aspect. without this box, it would have been more trashy, cheap and even more fragile. But when it’s inside it gets more serious leaving no doubt that it’s a real piece of art... I like this simple grip. The way of working with these two opposite parts and perspectives.

I also like the reference to the art history - that it has to do with Manzoni and Yves Klein and the presentation of their works today.

Anselm Reyle: untitled, 2006. 200x300x20 cm. mixed media on canvas, acrylic glass		Anselm Reyle: untitled, 2006. 143x121x15,5 cm. mixed media on canvas, acrylic glass

The box also makes your monochrome very delicate. And that’s general for your works, that they have this sort of exclusiveness. Why is your work so close to being decoration?

AR: Why not?

(Gallery owner Claus Andersen enters the conversation)

CA:Yes, I mean why not? What’s the problem with decorative things? If things are decorative does that make them less art? I basically think it’s a common comprehension, that when things are decorative then they aren’t dangerous. I don’t agree with the comprehension that art should be dangerous or crossing limits. I mean, does a Picasso do that nowadays?

AR: It is very decorative. And at some point I think that nearly every painting made is decorative. You can shit in a corner of a white cube and that would still be decorative.

It’s actually hard to do something which isn’t decorative. If a work has only a decorative value it's probably more for a wall of a dentists waiting room.

I'm aware of the fact, that my works look decorative at first. Like for example a song that sounds good...

The work Otto Freundlich desert is a tribute to a certain artist, and the painting has an interesting story to it. Can you tell the story behind the idea of the work?

Otto Freundlich was a German artist. He was killed by the Nazis' at the end of the Second World War.

One of his works was on the cover of the Nazi catalogue of the exhibition “Entartete kunst”, where they showed all the censored art from their point of view.

I liked Otto Freundlich's paintings already when I was a child. I think in his time his colourful abstract paintings were quite unusuaI. I work with the principal of his composition. So it's a homage to him.

I use materials that I always have been very fascinated by, the ones you can get in artist's stores. They have these gels and pastes for advanced techniques in paintings when you want to be creative. Painters like my mother come from the informal period of the 50 and 60’ties. They always used these thick sand structures and spartel techniques in their works. So I thought, why not try it?

Anselm Reyle: untitled, 2006. 224x189 acrylic on canvas

This painting is almost a monochrome. You have painted a canvas in a flour orange, and then barely painted it over with a matt black. Can you tell a little bit about the minimalistic approach?

During my study time, I had this period where I did a lot of monochrome paintings. I think a lot of artists have been through such a period. In a way it’s fascinating and makes you feel radical to do a painting by using only one colour. However, it is very difficult to go on from that point to develop it. In my opinion it is a kind of an ending point and can be a prison.

So I stopped and started painting dancing trees and stuff like that.

The idea of this painting started when I made a small painting on a neon ground. I painted something on it, and it looked like shit. So I painted black over it, leaving the edges of the background untouched, so it had some kind of frame around the black field.

This kind of working with accidents sometimes happens, when you have nothing to loose with a piece. I made the painting a bit bigger, to come closer to the feeling, that there is something energetic behind the black spot.

I made the drippings afterwards. It is only a trick to make the painting look cooler.

Anselm Reyle: untitled (Otto Freundlich desert nigh), 2006. 298x140 cm. mixed media on canvas		Anselm Reyle: untitled, 2006. 99x68x28 cm. 88x112x48 cm. bronze, chrome, enamel varnish, veneer plinth (makassa wood)

But do you find your work as being distant, as dealing with formalistic abstractions? Do you think it creates a distance between you as the artist, the work and the receiver?

(Gallery owner Claus Andersen enters the conversation)

CA: I think it's a miss comprehension - maybe created by art historians - that it's more difficult to look at abstract paintings than at paintings with figuration. As if it was figurative, everybody could easily jump into the painting. But if it is abstract, you're told that you don’t understand it. But there’s not much to understand!. It’s about using your dreams and imaginations, the exact things that abstraction allows you to use when looking upon it. For example like Trofu, who are very abstract in his work but has a narrative story.

Of course there is a lot of art history references in Anselms’ paintings, but I think that it opens them up in way. I think that the more you know about his work, they more interesting it gets, and that's right. But basically, everybody can look at his horizon painting, even though they have different approaches, but they will all get a feeling that it is a horizon.

AR: Surface and colours refer to things we relate to. I like the idea that kids as well as people who have nothing to do with art can also find their own access to my work. It's as simple as standing and waiting to cross the road, when a truck drives by and you're fascinated by the appearance of the hood. Its' easy. •