It is believed that there's nothing more to be said in the medium of painting. But do we exactly know how a painting is made? Ancient myths tell about the imprint of Christ's countenance on St. Veronica's Sacred Shroud and suggest that there is also something genuine physically inherent in images. Czerlitzki sprays colours through canvases that are mounted onto walls.
Colour traces which have seeped through the textile structure remain on the wall - the instant imprint of the fabric. The canvas itself is defining the painting. While spraying, the artist is placing additional canvases onto the studio floor where colour particles continuously settle. The result: monochrome paintings. Since the pigment is not fixated every slight touch is leaving traces on the fragile surface. When wrapping and shipping these works, the artist deliberately accepts losses and damages. The process of deterioration is actually creating a new image.
The canvases of Paul Czerlitzki's most recent works, titled "Fleshout", have been completely immersed in bone glue. The result of the drying process is a brownish and elephant skin-like surface. The shrinked canvas is covered with acrylic gel attaching a somewhat unapproachable artificiality to the work. So, these paintings are the result of a rather trivial chemical and physical process than that of an act of painting.
- Noemi Smolik
Paul Czerlitzki (born 1986 in Gdansk, Poland, lives and works in Düsseldorf) studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Katharina Grosse. At moment, Kunstmuseum Bonn presents a complete room showing works of Paul Czerlitzki within the context of their exhibition "Re-Vision". His works are shown at Projekt Neuer Norden Zürich, at Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, at Kölnischen Kunstverein, Cologne, at Akademie- Galerie Düsseldorf and at Leopold Hoesch Museum Düren as well as in numerous private and institutional collections in France, Switzerland and Germany, including the collection of the Federal Republic of Germany.
