Infinity - a term with two possible interpretations! On the one hand, it refers to the idea that there is no beginning and no end; on the other hand, the term "infinity" alludes to a never-ending number of possibilities.
When we look around here, this abundance fills us with joy, even happiness. Longing and happiness - these are the central themes of Andrea Langensiepen's work. "Happiness is a field of grass" is the title of one of the two works. Doesn't that make us feel a little of the bouncing joy that the mere REMEMBERING of spring or summer days, for example, brings us?
Andrea Langensiepen creates places of longing on canvases with her works. "Everything I have given is in the picture. Layer by layer. Even if I have 20 layers, the one moment is still there, even if it has been painted over. That has a meaning. When a painting "sounds", it always has several layers. I am convinced that the lower and overpainted layers also have an influence on the effect of the pictures," - says the artist.
In this way, colors and color sounds can tell stories from the boundless land of memory. Our memory! If you ask people looking at a work of art whether this or that color is warm or cool, you will get very different answers. Try for yourself. Nevertheless, there are approximations.
Allow me at this point to take a brief excursion into the MELODY of color. Wassily Kandinsky, who as a synaesthete had the ability to not only SEE the sound of color, but also to HEAR it, had the following perception: LEMON YELLOW sounds like a trumpet to him! SUNY YELLOW - as we can experience in Andrea Langensiepen's wonderful composition "EMPIRE OF SUN" - he heard a piano. With BLUE nuances, flutes sounded to him as LIGHT BLUE, cello as DARK BLUE, and then the organ as DEEP, FESTIVE BLUE.
The wonderful work "The Big Blue" by Andrea Langensiepen gives us a multifaceted opportunity to find out what the color BLUE is all about. At first glance, the overall orchestration of this masterpiece of subtle and at the same time powerfully gentle sound may make the interpretation of BLUE as the color of infinite expanse and longing seem fitting. And as varied as this feeling may appear, from melancholic to restful blue, from a subtle tugging in the soul to solemn joy - blue can awaken countless feelings.
In Christianity, blue as the color of the sky has always been associated with the divine, the supernatural, and as a "feminine" color it was attributed to the Virgin Mary. Blue also symbolizes the unreal, the world of dreams.
And the color RED? Kandinsky assigned red to tubes or fanfares. In any case, red is the color of passion, of love. In the monotheistic religions, red stands for the creation of mankind, evoking associations of blazing fire and embers, also in a metaphorical sense. And with Andrea Langensiepen? Let's take a look at the wonderful series MORPHEUS! Morpheus (Greek Μορφεύς) is the god of dreams and one of the sons of Hypnos, the god of sleep. Morpheus delivers the messages of the gods during the night in the form of dreams. He can transform himself into any conceivable shape, whether human, animal or object.
In Andrea Langensiepen's case, these works may perhaps seduce us a little into the world of INTUITION, of dreams, of letting go. Andrea Langensiepen is a representative of informal art, an abstract free color painting. The unconscious is omnipresent in her works as an undiscovered cosmos. Not directly accessible and yet influencing everything, it guides perception and action. Her art is thus able to awaken a broad spectrum of intense feelings - try it for yourself!
In a special way, Andrea Langensiepen's painting compositions seem to initiate questions that the viewer did not even know were on their mind. In an unfathomable way, the artist's works allow you, the viewer, to come very close, the desire to "linger", to find and gently accompany you to hidden inner treasures, setting something in motion layer by layer, a vibration, a gentle inner oscillation that whispers softly in the flow of arriving and letting go.
Her decision to do without perspective, her feeling for necessary, pleasant disruptions and exciting events is one thing. Her brilliant sense of color tones, however, is as unique as it is difficult to describe. "I paint until I feel the color tone" - says Andrea Langensiepen, whose artistic career has been shaped by influences from Hermann Nitsch, Peter Casagrande and Markus Lüpertz, with whom she was also a master student.
Andrea Langensiepen's creative creations seem to be given the space to become by constantly setting out on a new path, breaking away from what already exists or what has only just been discovered and conquered. In her quality and poetry, Andrea Langensiepen creates spectacular works that question both her own artistic existence and fragile human life in general, yet full of grace and lightness, she takes us along on her often romantic explorations. Above all, there seems to be an insatiable interest in what lies beneath the surface, as well as deep respect, grateful appreciation and a great joyful vitality.
And because they are so beautiful, I would like to take another look at their titles: "Der Abendwind eilt flüchtig über die Gräser" or "Ich warte auf Dich am See III", the work that comes across as new and greatly reduced in its wonderful rosé nuances, or the two stirringly exhilarating and then immediately soothing works "Liebe das Leben". Who wouldn't want to enter such colorful scenarios immediately and walk in them - forever and ever?
With her overlay technique, Andrea Langensiepen creates spatial dimensions that achieve visual depth through the fusion of colors. Moods and longings, impressions and aberrations are thus expressed in colors that bubble with free spirit and freshness in the overall experience of the work and its artistic logic, thus opening up those spheres of longing for the viewer in which ultimately color is everything, and "the picture is more than a picture". An exciting experience here and now in the museum art space. In the dialog between the visible and the invisible, dream and reality, inside and outside in this magnificent exhibition, a coexistence of quite unique dimensions.
The artist allows us to share in her emotions and immerse ourselves in our own worlds. A wonderful journey through the color landscapes of the soul and a sonorous symphony of color in the museum art space. When Wassily Kandinsky painted his first abstract pictures, contemporary art critics described him as crazy. Yet his idea was nothing less than to touch the human soul! And they will agree with me - the artist Andrea Langensiepen achieves this to a high and dense degree - the feeling of being touched when encountering her works resonates for a long time. No wonder art lovers and collectors spontaneously fall in love with these works!
Andrea Langensiepen's paintings are imbued with a delicately colorful soul, the compositions gently take the viewer on a very personal inner exploration, are or become familiar to him. A calm clarity. A smile. The deep-seated, unconscious comes across, calm, quiet, or jubilant feelings of happiness - Andrea Langensiepen's yearning pictorial landscapes of free painting are promises whispered with the brush.
© Cristina Streckfuß, BA, MBA | Laudator
KUNSTRAUM GERDI GUTPERLE | Viernheim, March 2024
