When talking of «gesturing» and «gestures» in the title of my speech I mean two very different aspects which this term conveys to me in Sebastian Heiner’s painting. On one hand gesturing while painting meaning the hand’s or the whole bodies’ movement in the act of painting and on the other hand the revealing and referring gestures that appear in many of his paintings.
Details作品中的红颜色是舞台上情节发展的唯一的颜色，它是女舞蹈演员演出服装的颜色，那个女人想表达的是一个春天的牺牲者，在她癫狂的舞蹈动作中她从性别之中逃离出来，并且做出了自我的牺牲，而其他的人 – 男人还有女人 – 一动不动地站在背后, 好像在出神的看死亡的舞蹈。
DetailsThe red in the painting is the only color of the happenings on stage, it is the color of the dancer’s clothes who is centered in the spring sacrifice. She tears out her sexual organ in a frenzied act and sacrifices herself while the other men as well as women standing in the background watch the death dance magnetized.
DetailsIn works like «Sunrise», «Bambushain» and «Night Lights», Sebastian Heiner depicts a shift of focus toward Asiatic culture, an a process of engagement with it.
DetailsIn an interview in 2001 Sebastian Heiner stated he would most like to be the cat from Alice in Wonderland: «I’d grin then disappear again into red oil paint without a trace!» Three years later he took off. Not quite as quick as the Cheshire Cat but since 2004 the artist from Berlin has been living and working in Beijing for six or seven months a year. This has not however turned Sebastian Heiner’s imagery upside down.
DetailsA note is struck; the painter stands on a stage. Rapt in concentration, his thoughts linger for a moment between the primed canvas and the music. Then Sebastian Heiner reaches for a brush. He dips it into the white bucket of paint and, with quick strokes, sketches a figure whose existence is only short-lived. Later in the process, before the eyes of those in the audience, its contours will vanish under layers of paint, covered over by strokes made with a brush or twig broom. In between, the artist even uses his arm as a painting tool or fly swatter.
DetailsTwo paintings from Sebastian Heiner – Sebastian Heiner’s painting is vivid and of an ecstatic color composition and intuitive energy. If one were to search for analogies in music one would find the large formats to bring to mind Richard Strauss’s opulent orchestrations. The fiery flow intones the free harmony of Igor Strawinsky’s early expressionism. The Peking opera with its difficult sound spectrum seems like an antilogy to the expressive all-over and sweeping gesture.
DetailsOnce again Sebastian Heiner journeyed to the Far East to paint. From 2004 till 2008 he maintained a studio in Beijing as well as in Berlin. Soon artists, curators and gallery owners living in China’s capital started to take notice of him. At the end of his duration, works Sebastian made in China were shown in Beijing and in Germany in highly acclaimed solo exhibitions.
Details“有些书不是让人随便读读的”，赫尔曼·黑塞写道，“《圣经》中的一些部分如此，《道德经》也一样。这些书中，一句话就足以让人受用良久，久久玩味，慢慢参悟个中奥妙。”
DetailsAccording to Hermann Hesse “some books cannot be read. Parts of the Bible are among these unreadable books, as well as the Tao-te-king. One sentence fromthese books is enough to keep anyone occupied for quite some time, pondering its contents.
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