Arnd Kaestner
Arnd Kaestner (* 1961 in Hamburg ) is a German painter and draftsman. He has lived and worked in Berlin since 1988.
Life
After high school and community service, he studied drawing and composition at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
In 1988 he moved to Berlin and initially worked as an employee for color studies in monument conservation, as a bartender and as a stage builder.
In the same year he met the Dresden painter Peter Herrmann , with whom he has a close friendship that continues to this day. His other surroundings are the artists Vitek Marcinkiewicz , Matias Bechtold , who are related to Bar Myśliwska , as well as critics such as Ulrich Clewing or the musician Sven-Åke Johansson .
Between 1990 and 1994 he attended aesthetics lectures given by Günter Abel (TU Berlin) and Robert Kudielka at the HdK (now the UdK) Berlin for reasons of philosophy . Since 1995 he has been working for the latter as a research assistant and secretary to this day.
Through the intermediary of Robert Kudielka, he met the English artist Bridget Riley in 1995 , whose work he dealt intensively with.
plant
Kaestner's early work in the early 1980s was initially shaped by Egon Schiele , Paul Klee , Joseph Beuys and Sigmar Polke . Gestural-expressive monotypes and series of works inspired by literature ( Samuel Beckett , Jean Améry etc.) such as 'Journey' (1987/88) and landscapes were created. At the beginning of the 1990s, under the influence of Richard Tuttle , Cy Twombly and Eva Hesse, the pronounced interest in the body gave way to a minimalist, gestural 'Ecriture', which, however, always considered the pictorial space and the visual movement.
In the following years he created his photograms, in which he investigates the question of materiality (water, pigment and light) and the image space. These works were presented as 'immaterial' as a projection on the wall or floor, but also as C-prints.
By Josef Albers , whose work (and that of his wife Anni Albers ) he intensively dealt by the monument research Villa Otte in Berlin-Zehlendorf, is his painting changed consistently towards the constructivist pictorial space.
Kaestner's works, however, repeatedly played with the optical experiences of everyday objects, shelves, boxes, barrier tapes or folded sheets (exhibition "Standards", 2003).
The intensive examination of Bridget Riley's work , especially her precise research into color neighborhoods and their consequences, led him to a very special interest in the non-hierarchical pictorial space, which 'refers to nothing but itself'.
Kaestner's work thus moves in a fundamentally philosophical or epistemological question. The so-called constants of right / left, top / bottom and front / back are questioned for their veracity.
literature
- Arnd Kaestner: Do Not Bend. Drawings and pigment prints . With texts by Anke Hervol and Birgit Szepanski. Vienna: Verlag für Moderne Kunst, 2016.
- Anja Blum: Where are you going to Arakdien, please? In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 5, 2019.
- Frank Wegner: Arnd Kaestner, every detail is equally important . In: Die Welt, May 29, 2009 (p. 32 / art market).
- Laura Weißmüller: Luftwechsel, four Berlin artists are exhibiting in Regensburg . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 5, 2008.
- Ulrich Clewing: Photo work by Arnd Kaestner , In: Die Tageszeitung, May 26, 1995.
- Evelyn Preuss: Arnd Kaestner: Become a colourist in Paris , In: Hamburger Abendblatt, October 12, 1985.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kaestner, Arnd |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter and draftsman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1961 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamburg |