Rudolf Zwirner and Jakob Mattner: an Interview

Grisebach is delighted to show an extensive exhibition in celebration of Jakob Mattner (*1946) being awarded the Folker-Skulima-Preis for his artistic oeuvre. The exhibition is comprised of over 50 works on paper, paintings, sculptures and installations, that had already been shown in public institutions such as Kestnergesellschaft Hannover, Nationalgalerie Berlin, ZKM Karlsruhe, New School Art Center New York and at SITE, Santa Fe, or come from prominent private collections such as the Collection Rudolf Zwirner or the Collection Peter Raue. Trained as a sculptor at Hochschule für bildende Künste Berlin and supported by scholarships and awards in Italy and France, Jakob Mattner's artistic work has, in deliberate solo effort, developed in the transition from light to dark. Mattner was influenced by his experiences with space and light in Lübeck's churches and Bologna Cathedral, Caravaggio's Chiaroscuro, the iconicity of Malevich and Moholy-Nagy's light dynamic, but also post-revolutionary constructivism and the simple methods of Arte Povera. Mattner has developed a unique photo-poetic phenomenon since the 1970s without making use of the medium photography. His paintings direct the light to landscapes never seen before, his Helios Negatives and light sculptures have created fleeting spaces, the non-reproducible interior of a Camera Obscura, the encaustic - wax on paper - fills and compresses historic spaces of a collective possible memory. The leitmotif of the exhibition is imagination and changing perspectives, but also the poeticizing of the world as a ground for the real human existence and its comprehensive capacity of perception. With its plethora of works, the exhibition invites the viewers to immerse themselves in Jakob Mattner's oeuvre by highlighting the versatility of his craft. -- Gallery website.