NYAB Event - Helmut Federle "Scratching Away at the Surface"

Helmut Federle "Scratching Away at the Surface"

Peter Blum Gallery (Soho)

This event has ended.

Scratching Away at the Surface brings together five paintings that are part of a cycle of nine works that Helmut Federle produced between January and March 2009. These small-scale works—each measuring 23 5/8 x 19 5/8 inches (60 x 50cm)—present the first series since 2005, and mark a new direction in Federle’s oeuvre. Unlike his paintings to date, the works in this exhibition have a gravitational center that is akin to a geometrically fractured spiral that resembles a tunnel. A diffused light –almost an inner light- illuminates the structure from within. The thin layers of paint, applied in a low level of saturation, create a type of transparency that allows the earlier stages of the painting to shine through. Instead of clear shapes and well-demarcated areas, these new paintings provide penetration and diffusion.

For Federle, a painting is not a self-contained field but instead points to something beyond itself. The equilibrium of the composition is precarious, or as the German art historian Gottfried Boehm states: “The viewer never feels that it has been permanently established, instead it always seems to be engaged in a circuitous search for itself.” This searching for itself—or oneself—is a guiding principle in Federle’s work. In fact, the works are the results of an internal unrest and a metaphysical longing. In their strong spiritual orientation, these paintings can be read in the tradition of Nordic Existentialism.

Born in 1944 in Switzerland, Federle now lives and works in Austria and Italy.