Rayk Goetze
BE NEW By Hendrik Pupat [2014]
Rayk Goetze’s painting ›Universum‹ would confuse both Ptolemy and Galileo, being neither geocentric nor heliocentric. Its focal point is painting itself—albeit in a reduced form, sensual yet impulsive. ›Universum‹ depicts roughly 100 colourful circles, most of which are enclosed in a ring of contrasting colour. The composition would suggest a progression from the top down: The spheres seem to emerge from a diffuse, milky mass, then intermingle wildly near the centre of the image, before forming orderly rows in the lower portion. However, it is equally possible that the sequence is exactly the opposite: The circles could be rising up from their conveyor-like order until they finally decay,—becoming one: unus versus.
The search for an appropriate interpretation leads us to familiar problems: Do paintings have a before and after? How much can the viewer interpret into them? How much do they have to interpret into them? Can paintings actually tell us anything, or are they more a question of composition, drawing, shape, colour, application, gradients, contrast and surface? In any case, we should not over-emphasise the image’s title, ›Universum‹. The artist did not approach the empty canvas with the title already in mind. The name only found its way to the image once the painting was complete. In spite of this, the title now determines how we look at it. Our interpretation would definitely be different if the painting were called ice cream eater, balloons, molecules or tribune.
At the same time, ›Universum‹ is also the title of the exhibition. However, it cannot be considered a uniting theme, as Rayk Goetze‘s first exhibition at Josef Filipp presents an overview of his oeuvre, featuring varied samples from his artistic universe. Portraits, interiors and landscapes are landmarks in his world, where the abstract meets the concrete. His work pays homage both to the tenacious, clumpy materiality of the paint, with its furrows and drips, and to the properties of the canvas, which, in Rayk Goetze’s works, seldom seems to have come fresh from a roll, but to have been subjected to a tough maturing process, making it a part of the artwork itself, rather than just a medium for paint.
Guardian, angel, Madonna and victim figures take centre stage in the images, often in isolation. While they may appear to be making meaningful gestures or pointing fingers, these gestures do not lend themselves to a clear interpretation. Some folds are so opulent that they render the wearers of white gowns, many of which are spiritual, virtually invisible. The inspiration for these paintings is diverse: the artist’s own observations, discoveries in old masters, mass media images. The ›source code‹ is just as likely to be a portrait by Bronzino or a photo of muscular brawny ›Mister Universe‹ bare–chested on horseback.
The artists’ preferred way of writing the exhibition title contains a hidden imperative:
UNI_
VER_
SUM_
Read from the bottom left to the top right, this reveals the German word for »BE« The middle row, from top to bottom, reads »NEW« in German. Be new—the epitome of a creative imperative! However, while the art world constantly demands innovation, it also craves recognisability and a solid grounding. Rayk Goetze epitomises this dichotomy, as his art is rooted in the Italian Renaissance [›re-birth‹, re-invention], yet his works clearly focus on the contemporary.
—Translated by Brendan Bleheen
___________
Hendrik Pupat
Cultural journalist
Photonews, Die Zeit, die tageszeitung,
Leipziger Volkszeitung, artnet, Westdeutsche Zeitung
Lives and works in Leipzig
Rayk Goetze’s painting ›Universum‹ would confuse both Ptolemy and Galileo, being neither geocentric nor heliocentric. Its focal point is painting itself—albeit in a reduced form, sensual yet impulsive. ›Universum‹ depicts roughly 100 colourful circles, most of which are enclosed in a ring of contrasting colour. The composition would suggest a progression from the top down: The spheres seem to emerge from a diffuse, milky mass, then intermingle wildly near the centre of the image, before forming orderly rows in the lower portion. However, it is equally possible that the sequence is exactly the opposite: The circles could be rising up from their conveyor-like order until they finally decay,—becoming one: unus versus.
The search for an appropriate interpretation leads us to familiar problems: Do paintings have a before and after? How much can the viewer interpret into them? How much do they have to interpret into them? Can paintings actually tell us anything, or are they more a question of composition, drawing, shape, colour, application, gradients, contrast and surface? In any case, we should not over-emphasise the image’s title, ›Universum‹. The artist did not approach the empty canvas with the title already in mind. The name only found its way to the image once the painting was complete. In spite of this, the title now determines how we look at it. Our interpretation would definitely be different if the painting were called ice cream eater, balloons, molecules or tribune.
At the same time, ›Universum‹ is also the title of the exhibition. However, it cannot be considered a uniting theme, as Rayk Goetze‘s first exhibition at Josef Filipp presents an overview of his oeuvre, featuring varied samples from his artistic universe. Portraits, interiors and landscapes are landmarks in his world, where the abstract meets the concrete. His work pays homage both to the tenacious, clumpy materiality of the paint, with its furrows and drips, and to the properties of the canvas, which, in Rayk Goetze’s works, seldom seems to have come fresh from a roll, but to have been subjected to a tough maturing process, making it a part of the artwork itself, rather than just a medium for paint.
Guardian, angel, Madonna and victim figures take centre stage in the images, often in isolation. While they may appear to be making meaningful gestures or pointing fingers, these gestures do not lend themselves to a clear interpretation. Some folds are so opulent that they render the wearers of white gowns, many of which are spiritual, virtually invisible. The inspiration for these paintings is diverse: the artist’s own observations, discoveries in old masters, mass media images. The ›source code‹ is just as likely to be a portrait by Bronzino or a photo of muscular brawny ›Mister Universe‹ bare–chested on horseback.
The artists’ preferred way of writing the exhibition title contains a hidden imperative:
UNI_
VER_
SUM_
Read from the bottom left to the top right, this reveals the German word for »BE« The middle row, from top to bottom, reads »NEW« in German. Be new—the epitome of a creative imperative! However, while the art world constantly demands innovation, it also craves recognisability and a solid grounding. Rayk Goetze epitomises this dichotomy, as his art is rooted in the Italian Renaissance [›re-birth‹, re-invention], yet his works clearly focus on the contemporary.
—Translated by Brendan Bleheen
___________
Hendrik Pupat
Cultural journalist
Photonews, Die Zeit, die tageszeitung,
Leipziger Volkszeitung, artnet, Westdeutsche Zeitung
Lives and works in Leipzig