BERTRAM HASENAUER

Bertram HASENAUER draws human figures.They are not invented, but real, although they appear as timeless creatures through the artist´s strongly reduced representation. They do not tell stories, because it is not the artist´s intention to be narrative. On the other hand, the figures appear in an eloquent silence and the viewer is involuntarily enticed to make up a story about the protagonist. The artist draws his characters in front of white monochrome or sometimes dark backgrounds. White is the most important colour for HASENAUER; he uses it for the background, the clothes and to reproduce the pale flesh tones. Especially through the bright colouring, the pieces produce a glow, which HASENAUER refers to as the “aura” of his works, something indescribable and immeasurable. “I put, with only a few exceptions, just one person in the picture, because I find him or her important, and this way I set him or her apart”, says HASENAUER. His human figures are present and absent at the same time and, although they are subject to the Zeitgeist, they have taken leave of the fast moving time we now live in and accomplish their own, unknown mission. They are withdrawn, concentrated on their innermost self, averted, veiled or nearly merged with the amorphous background. HASENAUER is not fascinated by illustrating individuality, personal characteristics or ways of living, but rather by finding a basic form that defines a person. HASENAUER is interested in art that can stand for itself, even without the discourse of sociocultural embedding. He does not want material extravagance, but rather a reduction of the person´s image without its environment, without any background. HASENAUER´s figures are idealized and depersonalized. Therefore, it is not surprising that the artist is not interested in a realistic reproduction; rather it is the presentability of the idea of hair, clothes and a person that plays a role.