Laudatory speech at the exhibition opening
Andrea Langensiepen says of herself that one of the traits that characterizes her most is an insatiable curiosity. At the same time, she concretizes her interest in life with all its facets through an examination of the non-objective, the ambiguous.
She says: "For me, art is the secret of letting go, of freeing oneself from the usual frameworks of interpretation." This sentence also explains why the artist devotes herself entirely to informal art, an abstract, gesturally free form of color painting.
In Langensiepen's work, color becomes the subject and its painterly realization becomes the theme. Her brightly colored paintings, guided by psychological improvisations, are to be understood as images of the soul.
Such an intensive preoccupation with the material of paint, which she applies in layers and whose highly dosed pigments have a strong luminosity and haptic presence after the painting process is complete, illustrates how directly and abruptly colors affect our perception.
On the whole, she does not seem to shy away from strong colors and color contrasts. Quite the opposite. For example, a delicate pink meets a dark, velvety green ("Happiness is a Field of Grass"), a rich sunny yellow meets a cheeky splash of violet ("The Queen of Violets"), white light tones shine over transparent water blue ("Rendezvous by the Lake"). Her sense of color is very differentiated and is implemented with great sensitivity. It is above all the colors that create tension in her paintings, which - derived from the colors in nature - formulate their own cosmos, create tones, evoke veritable soundscapes. The painter directs our gaze across dark,
mysterious surfaces into the bright light.
This can be clearly seen in the three paintings here on the large wall. "Behind golden-green shadows" (I + II) and the painting next to it "o.T."
The many layers of paint create a sense of space, and in this painting it seems as if the message of the letter is hidden in countless overlapping pages. In the right-hand half of the painting, the composition opens up and allows a view into the depths.
Overall, the surface shines slightly, reflecting the light. The luminosity of the painting is further enhanced in small, sparingly placed gold-colored areas.
Andrea Langensiepen not only handles her paint material with care, but also presents it to us as a precious commodity that is full of surprises and has the power to unfold a supernatural beauty.
Finally, let's let Immanuel Kant speak again. For him, beauty requires thought, a purely sensual pleasure does not need this: "Beautiful art [on the other hand] is a form of imagination that is purposeful in itself and, although without purpose, nevertheless promotes the cultivation of the powers of the mind for social communication."
Speaking of conviviality: you may now indulge your own feelings, both thinking and enjoying. Thank you for your attention.
Dr. Sabine Heilig | Laudator
GALERIE MEINLSCHMIDT | Ulm, January 2024
