The bechter kastowsky gallery is showing new works by Karen Holländer in its autumn exhibition. With this presentation, the artist offers a glimpse into the world of an apple.
Apple? Yes! The apple becomes an actor. It casts a shadow, it squeezes itself into a much too small box, it is peeled, it rolls off the edge - even out of the picture? Karen Holländer, who always pursues a social, usually also biographical theme in her works, once again shows exciting stories, now told with the help of the simplest of protagonists.
If we look at the title ‘Still Life with Apple and Pear’ and see the work next to it, we immediately notice that the pear is not ‘fallen fruit’, but a naked, cold light bulb that illuminates the apple on the table like an interrogation. Is he here on trial? Does he have to justify himself for the symbolic power that has been inherent in the apple since Adam and Eve? Karen Holländer loves the game of irritation and goes so far in her painting as to turn the inner painterly frame so that the object - how could it be otherwise: an apple - seems to fall out of the picture in the next second. Not from the tree, no, from the picture. Does it even fall from the tree when the painter catches the apple in her function as a model, or has she thrown it up beforehand? These are pictures with a grandiose painterly realisation that can tell a lot of stories in their sheer simplicity.
If we look at the title ‘Still Life with Apple and Pear’ and see the work next to it, we immediately notice that the pear is not a ‘fallen fruit’, but a naked, cold light bulb that illuminates the apple on the table like an interrogation. Is he here on trial? Does he have to justify himself for the symbolic power that has been inherent in the apple since Adam and Eve? Karen Holländer loves the game of irritation and goes so far in her painting as to turn the inner painterly frame so that the object - how could it be otherwise: an apple - seems to fall out of the picture in the next second. Not from the tree, no, from the picture. Does it even fall from the tree when the painter catches the apple in her function as a model, or has she thrown it up beforehand? These are pictures with a grandiose painterly realisation that can tell a lot of stories in their sheer simplicity.
However, in addition to the theme of the apple, Karen Holländer's new pictures are also concerned with visual disturbance. Does the bunch of flowers cast a shadow on the wall or is it the shadow that projects the bunch of flowers? Viewing habits are reduced to absurdity when the shadow suddenly comes to life.
In a third and final thematic focus, the painter turns her attention to the human figure and its journey through life. And who could be a better role model here than her own daughter? (With regard to the first thematic focus, one is almost inclined to say: ‘The apple doesn't fall far from the tree’. ) For example, Anna climbs the steps of a Viennese apartment block. She holds on to the wrought-iron railing and takes step after step. With the help of the repeated depiction of the figure, Karen Holländer manages to capture the temporal in the picture. The ascent of a young woman who, after her balancing act (a work from 2013 showing Anna balancing on a tightrope), is now mastering this very ascent and steadily approaching her goal.
Karen Holländer once again lives up to her reputation as a sensitive storyteller in this exhibition.
