with oil on canvas
drawing combined with painting Exam exhibition 2014 documentaHalle Kassel (D)
texts about paradigm change
Colore et Diegno - reframing the old rivalry / Malerei und Zeichnung - Ein alter Wettstreit neu gesehen (2014)
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Dr. phil Irene Below art historianOn Christmas 2013 Shpresa Faqi sent me and other „friends of good art“ a small portfolio with reproductions of her new work – eight portraits, large-size oil paintings. She wrote: „I never thought I would discover this old – supposedly worn-out art discipline as my ideal means of expression.“ Yet, looking back at the last ten years, it seams to her that she has continously been working towards it. She was welcoming feedback and comments and was looking for a place to present the original paintings.
Ten years ago, Shpresa completed her training in Arts at „Oberstufen -Kolleg“ - a college founded in 1974 as a part at the University of Bielefeld. For 30 years the institute experimented with a new school model bridging the last years of secondary school and the first years of university. As Shpresa´s art history teacher, I was pleased to receive news from her. Impressed by her pictures I sent her a short comment: „Thank you for your letter and the small catalogue with your new paintings, the images touched me. Particularly the partly undertemined, spares use of sketchy lines reveals the portrayed persons´ nature and / or your view of them. I was similarly touched by pictures from Marlene Dumas, who is also able to create a powerful image through a sketchy, fragmented piece of work.
As a result of the renewed contact an exhibition in 2014 in the Treppenhausgalerie, part of the auto-kultur-werkstatt (akw), in Bielefeld took place. This gave me the opportunity to see the original paintings and open the exhibition through a public dialogue with the artist. Whatfascinated me the most was how the artist reframes the old rivalry between painting and drawing in her work. The paragone, the battle between art and poetry, painting and sculpture (pittura e scultura) colour and drawing (colore et disegno), was the means to escape from arts as a handicraft and to legitimize free, autonomous artistic practice. In Giorgio Vasari´s artists´ biographies we find the theory, that for Venezian painters the primacy was colore. representing nature (natura), while for painters from Florence the primacy was disegno representing through (idea). Until today the dichotomy between painting and drawing characterizes many art analyses.
Shpresa places the rivalry between color and drawing inside her images. She approaches her subject in a reverse process. On the one hand, there is the monochrome background, painted in several layers in a longer process, on the other hand, there are the partially undefined, sketched head and body outlines with sparse contours and interior lining. These drawings are not perfect and not done without errors, they are characterised by constant corrections and improvements through the artist and the portrayed persons are not shown as perfect beings. Occasionally, even the eye or the mouth as being removed and repainted. The errors and corrections are integrated in the images and show the artistic process. At the same time they tell us how the artist´s memory functions. During the painting process Shpresa Faqi recalls in her mind the features of people who she often has not met for years. The paintings do not show a fixed image, but an approximation. The lines sometimes appear steady, sometimes doubtful, regulary leaving out important features. The portaits show injuries and blind spots. The deterministic use of oil paint is contrasted with a process of spontaneous image building through drawing, wich allows constant corrections.
Through the process of artistic creation and recreation, the artist´s relation with the portrayed person is exposed. It´s the emphasis on this tention, visualizing how our memory functions with all it´s shifts and distortions, which causes Shpresa Faqi´s paintings to be new and interesting to me.
by
Dr. phil Irene Below art historian
On Christmas 2013 Shpresa Faqi sent me and other „friends of good art“ a small portfolio with reproductions of her new work – eight portraits, large-size oil paintings. She wrote: „I never thought I would discover this old – supposedly worn-out art discipline as my ideal means of expression.“ Yet, looking back at the last ten years, it seams to her that she has continously been working towards it. She was welcoming feedback and comments and was looking for a place to present the original paintings.
Ten years ago, Shpresa completed her training in Arts at „Oberstufen -Kolleg“ - a college founded in 1974 as a part at the University of Bielefeld. For 30 years the institute experimented with a new school model bridging the last years of secondary school and the first years of university. As Shpresa´s art history teacher, I was pleased to receive news from her. Impressed by her pictures I sent her a short comment: „Thank you for your letter and the small catalogue with your new paintings, the images touched me. Particularly the partly undertemined, spares use of sketchy lines reveals the portrayed persons´ nature and / or your view of them. I was similarly touched by pictures from Marlene Dumas, who is also able to create a powerful image through a sketchy, fragmented piece of work.
As a result of the renewed contact an exhibition in 2014 in the Treppenhausgalerie, part of the auto-kultur-werkstatt (akw), in Bielefeld took place. This gave me the opportunity to see the original paintings and open the exhibition through a public dialogue with the artist. What
fascinated me the most was how the artist reframes the old rivalry between painting and drawing in her work. The paragone, the battle between art and poetry, painting and sculpture (pittura e scultura) colour and drawing (colore et disegno), was the means to escape from arts as a handicraft and to legitimize free, autonomous artistic practice. In Giorgio Vasari´s artists´ biographies we find the theory, that for Venezian painters the primacy was colore. representing nature (natura), while for painters from Florence the primacy was disegno representing through (idea). Until today the dichotomy between painting and drawing characterizes many art analyses.
Shpresa places the rivalry between color and drawing inside her images. She approaches her subject in a reverse process. On the one hand, there is the monochrome background, painted in several layers in a longer process, on the other hand, there are the partially undefined, sketched head and body outlines with sparse contours and interior lining. These drawings are not perfect and not done without errors, they are characterised by constant corrections and improvements through the artist and the portrayed persons are not shown as perfect beings. Occasionally, even the eye or the mouth as being removed and repainted. The errors and corrections are integrated in the images and show the artistic process. At the same time they tell us how the artist´s memory functions. During the painting process Shpresa Faqi recalls in her mind the features of people who she often has not met for years. The paintings do not show a fixed image, but an approximation. The lines sometimes appear steady, sometimes doubtful, regulary leaving out important features. The portaits show injuries and blind spots. The deterministic use of oil paint is contrasted with a process of spontaneous image building through drawing, wich allows constant corrections.
Through the process of artistic creation and recreation, the artist´s relation with the portrayed person is exposed. It´s the emphasis on this tention, visualizing how our memory functions with all it´s shifts and distortions, which causes Shpresa Faqi´s paintings to be new and interesting to me.