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Immaculate White: Art and Winter |
Brilliant sunshine, deep blue skies, powdery snow - that's how we're used to seeing the winter presented in pamphlets and brochures. Artists are also fascinated by the chilly season, albeit usually in very different ways. For them, winter can be a period of threat and harsh contrast, a time of drama, loneliness, and the passing of life. An essay exploring the icy regions of photography, painting, drawing, and video art. |
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True North: Isaac Julien |
"True North" is the most recent work by the British video artist Isaac Julien. It leads us to the Arctic: inspired by the notes of the African American explorer Matthew Henson, who reached the North Pole in 1909, Julien's video installation portrays a young black woman as a polar pioneer who embarks on a symbolic reenactment of the former slave's journey through Western modernism. Cheryl Kaplan met Isaac Julien for an exclusive interview. |
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Frozen Sculptures: Marc Quinn |
The British artist uses liquid silicone and complicated cooling devices to create frozen and conserved sculptures of fragile beauty. In making his works, the artist uses ingredients such as strands of DNA, chemical substances, exotic blossoms and plants, sperm, and excrement. The London art critic Ossian Ward describes why Quinn's abysmal approach to science and technology is unique in art today. |
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Felt and Fat: Joseph Beuys |
The nourishing energy of fat and the warming effect of felt were two symbols Joseph Beuys frequently used in the immediate expression of his ideas. His basic principle was using social warmth to break through the hardened crust of society in order to make a "social sculpture" that could be formed by everyone. Ulrich Clewing on the metaphors of warmth and coldness in Beuys' work. |
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Cold World Winter
landscapes,
pristine deserts of
ice, crystals: in
keeping with the
chilly season, db
artmag's current
issue investigates
art below freezing
– works that
address the
theme of coldness
either in a
concrete way or on
a symbolic, social,
or metaphorical
level. +++ Isaac
Julien is
considered to be
one of the most
important video
artists of the
present day; his
works have often
been the subject
of controversial
debate. His latest
video installation
addresses the
sublime in
landscape and
juxtaposes the
apparently
immaculate Arctic
panorama with the
history of racism,
colonialism, and
slavery. Cheryl
Kaplan met Julien
in New York and
interviewed him
exclusively for db
artmag. +++ Pure
white: the winter
inspires not only
vacationers and
athletes, but
artists, as well.
Ulrich Clewing
introduces works
from the Deutsche
Bank Art Collection
that deal with the
season's dramatic
heights and its
sharpest and
most exquisite
contrasts. +++ For
Marc Quinn's
installation
"Garden," plants
from Asia, Africa,
and Europe were
sealed in a
stainless steel
freezer at four
degrees below
zero Fahrenheit –
flowers that will
never wilt,
arranged together
in disregard of
every existing
botanical system.
The promise of
eternal life in
Quinn's works,
however, contrasts
with a complicated
technique without
whose support his
still lifes would
otherwise melt
and rot away. A
portrait by Ossian
Ward. +++ Joseph
Beuys
passionately and
idealistically
cultivated his
legend of felt and
fat as an original
experience
bestowing life and
warmth. An essay
on the polarity of
warmth and
coldness in
Beuys’ work.
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