Wilhelm Sasnal (Hardcover)
This is a beautiful little book. I say little, because usually I prefer bigger
books with bigger pictures, but the quality of these pictures is good and the
lay-out works to give you a feeling of closeness. This is even more surprising,
because the style of Sasnal seems a bit distant or impersonal, even when he
depicts people close up. There are plenty visible brushstrokes and drippings,
but they seem very controlled effects. The ruler is used a lot. Geometric forms
pop up everywhere. Half of the paintings are in black and white only. The
subject matter, however, is always human and poetic, even when we see hardly
more than a grid or a color field. The titles confirm this intuition: an organge
color field with the title ''An Eyelid'' is unforgettable. All paintings suggest
real meaning, they are not only pretentiously trying to be conceptual.
Unfortunately there is no interview with Sasnal. Maybe I should have read the
essays in the book but I rather have one sentence by the artist than 10 essays
by experts. Anyway, I enjoyed looking at even the most mysterious paintings and
I regularly return to the book for inspiration for my own work.
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