Vivian Greven has been exploring herself for a long time in order to find herself. "I spread out early," says the 33-year-old artist from Düsseldorf, who not only studied painting there, but also literature, and when she felt limited by brush and canvas, also visited a sculpture class. "I want my paintings to speak to the viewer and build a relationship with him - they should communicate, expand," says Greven.
That is much demanded by a canvas. Actually, painting has been considered detached for so long, and many new media compete with it. Painting is the oldest art form with sculpture, it carries centuries-old traditions and a conservative image with it. In painting, everything is said, nothing happens here. That's the prejudice.
Pictures can also be bought, touched, hung on the wall, painting has become a business too. It is considered commercial, unlike, for example, video art, which seems ideologically more resistant. The German pavilion in Venice has exhibited installations, performances, videos and conceptual art over the past ten years. The winners of the Nationalgalerie were video or performance artists. And filmmaker Hito Steyerl is one of the most influential people in the art world.
And the painting? Vivian Greven is neither intimidated by the old-fashioned image, nor is she accused of painting being per se susceptible to commerce. Greven belongs to a new generation of top trained, networked, critical painters - skepticism, so to speak. She deals with today's questions, but uses the oldest language of art.
Painting is dead, long live the painting
In Greven's paintings, people and faces are usually seen interacting, some figures are reminiscent of sculptures, in between are abstract surfaces that give the pictures an irritating depth. Their lines and colors are delicate, the shapes smooth, aloof and absolutely Instagram-ready. Yet the paintings convey a longing for touch rather than a digital retreat. "Is that selling? That's not a question I'm asking myself in the studio," says Greven.
photo gallery
14 pictures
Photo gallery: Fresh paint jobBut she could be well on her way. Greven's paintings "Lamia", "LEEA" and "Tru I" are now hanging in large museums in an exhibition project that aims to describe the status quo of young painting in Germany. "Now! Young Painting in Germany" shows works by artists between the ages of 30 and 40 years. Three exhibition centers have teamed up and sent seven exhibition makers through studios in Germany for two years. It was agreed on 53 names, which are to be seen with three paintings in Bonn, Chemnitz and Wiesbaden.
Are these the best, the stars of tomorrow? And what unites these artists? "We show a cross-section, not a canon," says Stephan Berg, curator and artistic director of the Kunstmuseum Bonn. They want to show diversity, a snapshot. On similarities have it "Now!" not at all.
And yet they exist. Although not necessarily in the imagery, but the artists have about their academicism together: All have studied, most of the major schools in Dusseldorf and Leipzig, a few in Hamburg, Munich, Berlin. No career changers, no self-taught. "That's just a good breeding ground," explains curator Berg. It is at the academies but less imitated, as it had earlier in Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, the Jörg Immendorf students and in Leipzig, the neo-Rauch students. "This generation eludes categorization, it's everywhere in between, and it's skeptical," says Berg.
Even a Modersohn is there
A market phenomenon remains the painting anyway. In the corners for emerging artists at art fairs, gallery owners are now more inclined to name the 53 "Now!" Names. "We were cautious with artists already anchored in the market, and some 35-year-olds are not there because they are already well-positioned internationally," says Berg. But very quickly, his 53 candidates will now belong. A strict exclusion criterion was therefore not prominence.
Otherwise Simon Modersohn would probably not be there. The 29-year-old with the famous name is the youngest among the boys of the "Now" exhibition, only a few weeks ago he finished his studies. His family belongs to those of Otto Modersohn and Paula Modersohn-Becker. The paintings of the youngest painter's sprout include village scenes from Fischerhude - where his family runs the Otto Modersohn Museum - or the Worpswede artists' colony, where the eminent Expressionist Paula Modersohn-Becker died in 1907. Other paintings are abstract views without details, they seem artificial, like painted screens.
According to his gallery owner Hagen Schümann, Simon Modersohn is not one of Germany's most important positions due to his surname, "but due to his unusual perspective play, which contributes to the current discourse." Moreover, there is hardly a painter who still deals with village arrangements today. "Some interested parties have already registered for the works, which will now be on display in the museums," says Schümann, but this year he has not sold more Modersohns than before.
Is an artist corrupted when it has market value? Can good painting only take place offside? Or are these decades-old allegations soon over? You will always be able to argue about that. Too narrow, the painting is interwoven with its market to draw sharp dividing lines between the exhibition, which is considered more serious, and the galleries, the so much faster find interesting art than museums. The exhibitions in Bonn, Chemnitz and Wiesbaden want to avoid all categorizations and ideologies. And just show what is.
Exhibition : "Now! Young Painting in Germany", Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Museum Wiesbaden, until 19 January 2020