PHOTO: © Unsplash: In The Making Studio

Matthias Maaß

In the organizer's words:

When the Heidelberg artist Matthias Maaß died far too early in 2019 at the age of 61, he left behind a rich body of work, which the Matthias Maaß Collection has set itself the task of preserving and making visible. The aim of this exhibition is therefore not only to commemorate an extraordinary personality, but also to highlight his stylistic influence, which was idiosyncratic in the best sense of the word, and to present a compilation of various important groups of works in the artist's oeuvre as a whole.

Maaß became known first and foremost for his head or day paintings, mostly drawn in ink and watercolor on A4 paper. However, he also created oil and acrylic paintings on canvas, some prints and numerous pencil, crayon and chalk drawings. A characteristic feature of Maaß's work is the line. It is fragile and yet decisive. In the ink drawings in particular, the delicate and at the same time angular and angular nature of the often seemingly endless lines is fascinating. With a searching imprecision, the artist's lines always retain a human dimension, even when he forces them into a grid of pre-calculated rectangular compartments and gives in to an urge for order. In particular, the repeated application of fresh ink creates an abstract pattern of mysterious rhythm and fascinating aesthetics parallel to the figurative motif.

Poetic moods are often created by wonderfully associative titles, which Maaß handwrites in ink on the front of the sheet alongside the exact date of creation, thus consciously making them a co-determining factor of the work - similar to Paul Klee, for example. The colorful accents in watercolor are also often delicate and poetic, offering a more two-dimensional counterpart to the arabesque interweaving of lines and adding cheerful and lyrical notes to the sometimes abysmal depths of psychological constitution.

Equivalent to the Surrealists' idea of 'écriture automatique', Maaß drew inspiration from the deep layers of inner contemplation, which in his works brings to light the hermetically mysterious, the abysmal and the driven, as well as humane affection, subtle humor and sensitive empathy. Dr. Kristina Hoge.

This content has been machine translated.

Location

Museum Haus Cajeth Haspelgasse 12 69117 Heidelberg

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