Christian Eckart

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christian Eckart (* 1959 in Calgary , Alberta , Canada ) is a Canadian-American visual artist.

life and work

Eckart studied sculpture at the Alberta College of Art, Canada from 1981 to 1984 and in 1984 he studied painting at Hunter College in New York with Robert Morris . He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 1986. In 1994, Eckart received both Canadian and US citizenship. Since 2003 he has lived in Houston, Texas.

Christian Eckart became internationally known in the 1980s and 1990s through the "Eidolon Series", the "Icon-Type Series", the devotional pictures and the White Paintings. They all relate to the techniques, contents and traditions of religious works of art since the Renaissance. In these works, gilded strips and panels are used in configurations that refer to altarpieces, cross shapes and the like and combined with contemporary materials such as plexiglass, formica and industrial paints.

The color palette is primarily derived from the religious paintings of the Renaissance and Baroque and their symbolic meaning. Although the works develop a sculptural characteristic, the painterly dimension and its tradition are in the foreground. The artist works on overlapping or parallel series, whereby two fundamental aspects are always important: On the one hand, Eckart's work is always based on intellectual and philosophical reflections on critical issues and conclusions and their relationship to the canon of Western art. These “meta-paintings” refer to themselves, their essence as an artificial construct or physical image object. On the other hand, it is Eckart's wish to implement this artistic concern with works that convey the qualities and values ​​of beauty, elegance, grace, simplicity, calm and sensuality, and which refer to the “post-romantic sublime”. Eckart's works deal with the paradox of the representation of the unrepresentable, the unknowable and the inexpressible. They embody the concept of “nothing” or “void” as the fundamental cultural constructions of the 20th and 21st centuries. Christian Eckart's art has created a bridge between the "sacred" and the "real" in the superimposition and synthesis of modernist essence , elements of religious art from the West and Far Eastern metaphysics.

Since the 1990s, the artist has mainly used aluminum, hand-polished automotive paints and industrial production methods for the realization of his "meta-paintings" - such as the painting technique developed by Rolls-Royce at the beginning of the 20th century, which in turn is based on the centuries-old Chinese lacquer art tradition (applies to the series "Sacra Conversazione", "Regular Paintings", "Zootrope Paintings" and "Curved Monochrome Paintings"). Since around 2010 Eckart has created several large works for public spaces, which mainly consist of dichroic glass and represent a further development of the "Hexagonal Perturbation" series.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • 2011 Christian Eckart: The Absurd Vehicle and Other Propositions, McClain Gallery, Houston, Texas
  • 2009 Christian Eckart: Works and Projects, McClain Gallery, Houston, Texas
  • 2006 Christian Eckart: Purpose Driven, McClain Gallery, Houston, Texas
  • 2003 Einstein's Toaster, New Work by Christian Eckart, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg
  • 2002 My Way, Trepanier Baer Gallery, Calgary, Canada
  • 2002 Exformation, McClain Gallery, Houston, Texas
  • 2001 New Models, Art of this Century, New York
  • 2000 Circuits & Zootropes, Tanit Gallery, Munich
  • 2000 Christian Eckart, Windows, Brussels
  • 1999 White Album, Trepanier Baer Gallery, Calgary, Canada
  • 1999 Christian Eckart, Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Salzburg
  • 1999 New Monochromatic Works, Christian Eckart, Robert McClain Gallery, Houston, Texas
  • 1998 Christian Eckart, Galerie Ren Blouin-Espace 502, Montreal, Canada
  • 1997 Various Logic, Janis Gallery New York
  • 1997 Christian Eckart, McClain Gallery, Houston, Texas
  • 1997 Face à Face, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
  • 1997 Christian Eckart, Works 1986–1996, Tanit Gallery, Munich
  • 1997 Christian Eckart, SAT Exhibition Space, LIC, Queens, New York
  • 1994 Christian Eckart, Trepanier Baer Gallery, Calgary, Canada
  • 1994 Christian Eckart, Tanit Gallery, Munich
  • 1993 Christian Eckart, Abbaye Saint-Andre, Center d'Art Contemporain, Meymac (F)
  • 1993 Paintings - Christian Eckart, Sabine Wachters Fine Arts, Brussels
  • 1993 The Power-Chord Cycle Etching Portfolio, Betsy Senior Contemporary Prints, New York
  • 1992 Sacra Conversazione Paintings, Tanit Gallery, Cologne
  • 1992 Shadow Paintings Project, Rubin Spangle, New York
  • 1991 The Power-Chord Cycle, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
  • 1991 The Real, the Ideal, the Signified, Joseloff Gallery, University of Hartford, Connecticut
  • 1991 Sacra Conversazione Paintings, Rubin Spangle Gallery, New York
  • 1991 The Power-Chord Cycle, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
  • 1990 Christian Eckart, Galerie Philippe Kriwin, Brussels
  • 1990 Forum, International Art Fair Düsseldorf, presented by Galerie Tanit, Munich
  • 1990 The Power-Chord Cycle, llingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Canada
  • 1989 Christian Eckart, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
  • 1989 Christian Eckart, Massimo Audiello Gallery, New York
  • 1988 Museum ex Horror Vacuii, Galerie 't Venster, Rotterdam
  • 1988 Christian Eckart, Galerie Laage-Salomon, Paris
  • 1987 Christian Eckart, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
  • 1987 Christian Eckart, Tanit Gallery, Munich
  • 1986 Christian Eckart, Massimo Audiello Gallery, New York Christian Eckart, Massimo Audiello Gallery, New York
  • 1984 Christian Eckart, Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Calgary, Canada

Teaching activity (selection)

  • 1994–2003 The School of Visual Arts, New York
  • Since 2003 professor at the Glassell School / Museum of Fine Art, Houston

Working in museums and collections

  • Art Gallery of North York, Toronto, Canada
  • Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
  • Australian National Gallery, Melbourne
  • Burda Media, Offenburg, Germany
  • Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan
  • Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
  • Eli Broad Family Foundation and Eli Broad Foundation, Santa Monica, CA
  • Ernst and Young Tower, Oxford
  • Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada
  • Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
  • Les Vingt de Groeninge, Bruges, Belgium
  • MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
  • Musée d'art Contemporain, Grenoble
  • Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, North York, Ontario, Canada
  • Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas
  • Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna
  • New York Public Library, New York
  • The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
  • The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Sources and literature

  • Christian Eckart. Abbaye Saint-André, Center d'Art Contemporain, 20 février - 18 avril 1993. Contribution: Jan Avigkos. Meymac 1993.
  • Cheetham, Mark A. (Ed.): Disturbing Abstraction: Christian Eckart. Essays by Mark A. Cheetham, Christian Eckart, Elizabeth D. Harvey, Friedhelm Mennekes and Andy Patton. London, Western Ontario 1996.
  • Faith: The Impact of Judeo-Christian Religion on Art at the Millennium. The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. January 23 - May 29. Curated by Christian Eckart, Harry Philbrick, and Osvaldo Romberg. Ridgefield, Connecticut 2000.
  • Space Vehicles: Allusion Objectified. Curated by Christian Eckart. McClain Gallery. Houston 2003.
  • Nasgaard, Roald: Abstract Painting in Canada. Douglas & McIntyre, Ltd, Vancouver, British Columbia 2008, pp. 368-371.
  • Cheetham, Mark: Christian Eckart: Beyond the wall Canadian Art Magazine, January 2012.

Individual evidence

  1. Curriculum vitae ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 127 kB), accessed on April 1, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.christianeckart.com
  2. Nasgaard, Roald: Abstract Painting in Canada. Douglas & McIntyre, Ltd, Vancouver, British Columbia 2008, pp. 368-371.

Web links