Katharina Grosse, « Raw constructions » 2005 © Palais de Tokyo, Paris and Nacht St Stephan gallery, Vienna
First look
Total immersion in a whirlpool of colors and pure energy ! “There’s a plan, but as soon as I start working, spray painting can change everything. It’s the exciting thing”: walls, windows, floors, stairs … Everything goes !
Second look
“From the 80s New York graffiti …, psychedelic culture, German expressionism, performance and installation, the work of Katharina Grosse defies our expectations in painting, embracing the history of the medium while opening it to unexplored fields” Picture Park, Queensland Art Gallery, 2007, Australia.
Look at history
The first in the nineteenth century, Monet realizes a work that is no longer facing the viewer but envelops it completely. With the Nymphéas of the Orangerie, painting becomes an environment, within which we can move, in a rather disconcerting way since no detail is outlined. The focal point of a space in perspective, constructed in an illusionist way, disappears.
Look at our society
“Free energies”, a beautiful image often quoted in corporations, here physically represented ! A sensory experience, which encourages “to broaden one’s gaze”, to break down the boundaries that one imposes, to open oneself to the senses, and to suggest the virtues of audacity … as a daily bath of youth.