Judy Green The Catto Gallery
100, Heath Street NW3 1DP London
Tel 0044/-20 7435 6660 Fax 0044/--2074315620
Email art@catto.co.uk
A work of art creates illusions; the images are only the material objects of inspiration but it is the painter who gives them individual form and meaning. „Crush the image to pieces and from the debris construct your own picture". This is the key to understanding contemporary works of art and no less an artist than Picasso has shown us how it works in practice.The same approach can be seen in the extraordinary collage and mixed media work of Salzburg painter Bernhard Vogel. In his New York paintings, Vogel superimposes and juxtaposes varnished patches of colours. Collecting fragments of things that recall the experience of the image - torn posters, newspaper cuttings, public transport tickets, scraps and pieces that have a deep and intimate relationship with the image depicted - Vogel introduces them as elements of collage onto a painting that has already been done, producing a fascinating and unorthodox illusion of reality. It is an illusion however, which comes very close to real seeing. The paintings almost vibrate with a life of their own and the viewer feels surrounded by this intense reality. The artist´s breathtaking use of perspective keeps one´s eye almost in involuntary motion, producing a very personal and individual relationship with the work.
No less exciting are Bernhard Vogel´s watercolours - justifiably lauded throughout Europe. Watercolour is a notoriously difficult medium to handle well, and the technique is often associated with a tentative approach, but in Vogel´s hands it is energetic and very modern. Vogel succeeds - where many have failed - in striking a delicate balance between realism and decoration. The realism lies in his confident handling of architecture, not only in close up but also in the distance as the marvellous skylines reveal. But these watercolours convey more than just architecture and detail - they are about atmosphere and light too, wich the artist records with great sensitivity. Turner would have appreciated Vogel´s luminous skies, glowing with warm and iridescent colours. The decorative aspects of the work stem from Vogel´s technique of combining great daring with painterly control. He combines broad areas of wash with an uncanny sense of line, in some places using gouache or chalk over the watercolour to create different textures and depth. Vogel combines control and happy accidents, creating an exhilarating sense of freedom.
Bernhard Vogel, a young artist already confident and successful, is now attempting new ideas and painting new subjects; he experiments and explores, and the sense of the new is very much in evidence for his first exhibition.