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The three most recent exhibitions of works by Florian Süßmayr (born in 1963 and residing in Munich) were held in Munich and attracted much interest and approbation. They include: a show at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle (which ended in April of 2005), “Paintings for German Museums” in the Haus der Kunst and a group exhibition in the Kunstbau der Städtischen Galerie im Lenbachhaus (both of which continued until May of 2005). The Johnen Galerie Berlin is pleased to present Süßmayr’s next solo exhibition, which is comprised of new paintings.
Süßmayr's early drawings and first oil paintings were exclusively portraits. Following a 1995 sojourn in Beirut, Süßmayr portrayed the destroyed city and its refugee camps in his paintings. Thereafter, people virtually ceased to appear in his work.
A motif of strong emotions pervades Süßmayr's body of work. Depicted are emotions often excluded from civilized daily life, such as: ecstatic excitement, intoxication and feelings associated with the removal of sexual boundaries. Indeed, beer glasses or scrawled bathroom walls are not necessarily intended to represent popular custom, but rather the presence of emotional worlds existing beneath a layer of social conformity.
On certain occasions and in certain locations, these effects are discharged within large groups of people. Indeed, Süßmayr’s newest group of paintings - for the exhibition in the Johnen Galerie in Berlin - depicts emotionally charged masses submerging into these ecstatic worlds. In the paintings, places, people and emotions fuse to form a strong movement consisting of both darkness and light. The paintings immediately confront the viewer with an experience of frenzy and intoxication.
Examples of occasions where Süßmayr finds such experiences are: a concert in Austin, Texas performed by a punk band known as Black Flag; an orgy in Otto Mühl’s AA-commune; Oktoberfest in Munich in a tent housing a beer hall; among audience members at a rock concert in Seattle; and within a group of soccer hooligans in Rotterdam. Masses become energetically charged surfaces or, as Kracauer would have it, the ornament of anarchic power.
Süßmayr’s paintings recontextualize notions from such artists as: Dubuffet, Twombly or Hopper in that they reflect current societal episodes. In this manner, phenomena such as unchained vitality, vandalism and anarchy enter the range of vision and find their position within the tradition of modern painting.
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