Artist Statement

Trained in classical oil painting, my master’s thesis already includes reflections on the representation of the human body, as an all-encompassing Renaissance canon, in unconventional contemporary scenarios. Collages have a significant relevance in the quest of these, often alienating, wayward compositions. In the course of my work, the portrait increasingly gains a place in my mode of expression. It took some time until I had the courage to transfer what I had learned about facial expression, expression and drawing technique, on the canvas. At the same time, the acquaintance with the German artist Matthias Kroth was decisive for me, because he ignited in me the fascination for large-format painting. So the portraits became bigger and bolder, more complex and more colorful. It was only later that I saw photos of the first stage sets that my grandfather had developed and sketched before and after the war in theaters and municipalities across the country. The goal of my painting always remains the same: to unravel the experience of the individual in contemporary events by uncovering secrets, fears, longings of the human soul step by step. Each portrait shows the conflict between the persona and the anima: frozen, redeemed, forced, caught, bent, stretched, limited, steely, tender, trained, soft, angular, round, healthy, weak, trapped, solved, drawn. In addition, my work as an art therapist, allows me to look deep into the motives of the human soul, which often influences my view of events. This leaves a footprint , voluntary, tolerated, even partly accepted as another important source of inspiration, as a source of knowledge in the personal artistic quest.

Another important source of inspiration is the work of the Swedish screenwriter, film and theater director Ingmar Bergman, whose work ” Persona ” was a revelation for me. The art of film in general is an important part of my research. Also the work ” The Passion of the Maid of Orleans ” by Carl Theodor Dreyer from 1928 is still to be mentioned. I was just 20 years old when this work engulfed me and nourished my zeal for portrait drawing with all its versatile facets.

As already indicated, the technique of collage is a perpetual companion. Sometimes they serve as a template, a sketch, a source of inspiration, sometimes even as an independent work. I use therefore photography as a medium to collect different motifs. From vacation and celebration photos, from nature and family photos I fillet details and combine them with excerpts from journals and magazines. The collage allows me to create a new scenario in which the depicted elements lose their original meaning and take on a different identity. The result is a construct that reflects a different reality.

In 2020, so to speak, it came to the symbiosis of the two techniques. My paintings are composed of collages as a unique reproduction in print form on vinyl advertising banners. The portraits, or ” actors ” who inhabit these sceneries, are subsequently attached, interact and initiate through their posture and facial expressions. The large-format surfaces invite the viewer at the same time, as an ” actor ” to attend the represented.

Contemporary Madrigal
“I am a painter, a portrait painter to be exact.”

My art studio is situated in the heart of the medieval town named Vianden in the northern countryside of Luxembourg. The atmosphere here is enchanting, captivating, surprising, which makes it all the more inspiring to create.

Thus my work is deeply influenced by Luxembourgish tradition and contemporary life and aims to elucidate the individual’s experience in society dealing with the secrets and the anguish of the human soul. It is rooted in the tradition of narrative painting and each portrait reveals the conflict between the persona and the anima.

In this series I exploit the society of the baroque in the 17th-18th centuries to reflect the emotional and social experience of people and their development in critical phases of life as well as their reactions to situational socio-political events.

Certainly the atmosphere of Vianden with its majestic castle, is inevitably a vital and a primary source of inspiration. The baroque era is the story of two opposing societies, an ambivalence which is still or again very much alive today. On the one hand, there are consolation-seekers who in their suffering devote themselves to religion. Another segment of society turns to the material pleasures of life and to the urge of splendid illumination. It is an elitist culture, succumbed to appearances with splendidly decorated robes, bulky skirts and wigs, impressively designed halls and rooms where they give themselves to festive ceremonies, orgies, exploring with drugs as well as gambling.

“The state is me”, is the famous phrase of the self-proclaimed Sun King, a staging in itself that has no equal. And yet somehow this attitude of the egocentric, narcissistic ruler towards his people, regrettably finds its echo in our present time.