MAGNUS PLESSEN
b. 1967, GermanyMagnus Plessen’s painting combine an abstract, gestural style with a figurative subject matter. His tactile and expressive brushwork renders the subject elusive whilst also confounding any fixed viewpoint. His recent works include 1914, a project for The Rose Art Museum. Drawing on historical material from Ernst Friedrich’s War Against War, 1924, Plessen transcribes the anti-war polemic of traumatic imagery into a vernacular of painterly gesture.
Born in Hamburg, the painter lives and works in Berlin. His process involves the application and removal of paint, a technique that is reminiscent of Richter’s paintings. This structured building up of the image reveals a investment in the materiality of the work, yet the physicality of the painting is held in constant check by the push and pull of space.
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