At the 4th Southwest Art Prize Esslingen I am represented with a work:
Deposits, 2023,
Malachite, graphite, layered printing colours on canvas, 80 x 80 cm.

The green pigment malachite was first applied to the canvas in 10 thin layers and forms the basis for subsequent layers of colour. The used pigment is from Algeria (Kremer Pigments). Today, most malachite comes from the Urals and the Congo, where Kremer Pigmente also sources malachite*. A portrait (unknown) made of graphite was drawn on these layers of malachite. Finally, colour was applied using printing inks, leftovers from a printing company used for offset printing. Diluted with linseed oil, they flow and spread across the picture in horizontal and vertical lines. Remnants of lumpy colour remain stuck to the picture support.

The used pigment malachite refers to one of the most important historical pigments found in nature. In a figurative sense, the picture can be seen as a kind of time layer with deposition processes; man emerges long after the formation of the earth (portrait) and intervenes in the natural space. The printing inks are man-made and are deposited silently on the surface of the earth in the form of microplastics.

4th Southwest German Art Prize
Abstraction, Expression, Concretion – non-representational art today
Opening on Monday, September 16, 2024 on 7.30 p.m., on view until November 8, 2024.
Haus der Kunden der Kreissparkasse Esslingen (district bank), Bahnhofstraße 8.

The Sparkasse (bank) asks you to register by e-mail to heike.wittmacher@ksk-es.de

Photo Credits: Ulrike Reichart
Copyright VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, Barbara Karsch-Chaïeb
*from Kremer Pigmente