 Gerhard Merz Die Schachtel 200 copies signed and numbered from 1/200 to 200/200 20 A.P. signed and numbered from I to XX Linen boxed set with four- and six-paged folded and single sheets, 464 pages, 8 four-coloured plates, 17 duotone plates and 39 monochrome illustrations according to the artist–s specifications 17 x 12 x 2 inches |
Gerhard Merz Die Schachtel Gerhard Merz (born 1947 in Munich) has put together in a case all the works that document the essence of his output – the monochromes and architectural designs that mean the most to him – within a quasi Boîte-en-valise, the artist–s museum that Duchamp had developed in a –box–. Emptied of all signs, the picture planes painted in cobalt green, ochre, Veronese green or ultramarine blue substantiate this radical artistic approach, which demands the picture–s full autonomy from its depictive function. By negating a pictorial means of expression, the strategy of aesthetic refusal is taken to a zero statement. The painting purism, which by sensual perception alone does not lead to cognition, causes sense deprivation accompanied by a feeling of emptiness. This aesthetic nihilism corresponds to the literary allusions that Merz includes: among others, T.S. Eliot–s existential sense of void and the painter who fails to produce the ideal artwork in Honoré de Balzac–s The Unknown Master piece. If the question as to the perfection of art is posed here, the spatial compositions based on rationality, precision, measure and lighting, such as Pavillon (2000) and Fragment Grande Galerie I-XIV (2002), set the stage for the experience of the sublime, make art into a medium of reflection and portray Gerhard Merz–s basic intention that extends to a mental level. |
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| 978-3-941263-38-3 | € 1.000,– | available | ||
