Jonathan Borofsky
Jonathan Borofsky (born March 2, 1942 in Boston , Massachusetts ) is an American artist .
Life
Jonathan Borofsky lives and works in Ogunquit / Maine , USA .
After studying art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh , Borofsky continued his studies at the Ecole de Fontainebleau and Yale University . In the 1960s, Jonathan Borofsky sought to combine minimalism and the colorful world of Pop Art . This was followed by works of conceptual art (number meditations) towards the end of the 1960s . In 1971 he continued his painterly and sculptural practice and created some oversized sculptures such as the Himmelsstürmer, the Hammering Man or the Ballerina Clown (outside the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen ). The first version of the Ballerina Clown was created in 1983. The Aachen version dates from 1991 and was part of the Metropolis exhibition in the Gropiusbau Berlin that year . Another version is in Venice (Los Angeles) .
Biography and work
Jonathan Borofsky's works are characterized by a wide range of forms of expression, the diversity of which cannot be incorporated into any stylistic concept. Over the decades, his artistic work has been influenced on the one hand by elements and prevailing ideas of the art world, on the other hand determined by the search for artistic uniqueness.
Born the son of a pianist and a painter, he started taking art lessons at the age of eight. His studies at Carnegie Mellon University , which he describes as "nice four-year protection", he completed in 1964 as a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In 1964 he studied temporarily at the Ecole de Fontainebleau in Paris .
The main focus of his artistic work was sculptures, he experimented with plaster of paris, later he made works of welded steel (often covered with plaster) at Yale University . His role model in this is Picasso , whose sculptures contain a great variety of styles and - like his - are constructed in drawings. “ Borofsky made a number of separate forms - umbrellas, fruit shapes, geometric structures - and organized them into one additive sculpture, which retained the identity of the individual parts, a feature that continues to characterize his work. "( Mark Rosenthal , German:" Borofsky made a number of individual shapes - umbrellas, fruit shapes, geometric structures - and arranged them in a composite sculpture that retained the peculiarities of the individual parts; a property that continues to characterize his work. ") In 1965 he made his first “primitive” sculptures out of fiberglass in the same style.
His artistic career is shaped by both his academic career (1966 doctorate in Yale) and the change of location that followed soon afterwards. He moved to New York , the center of the art world of his time. At the end of the sixties, Borofsky tried to combine the simple formal language of minimalism with the direct imagery of Pop Art in order to be able to express new approaches of subjective objectivity and meaningful content. Under the influence of the art of Roy Lichtenstein , he produced decorative objects (especially lamps), but most of them were later destroyed by himself.
In 1967 Borofsky stopped making "art objects" and began to write down his thoughts and number meditations. Convinced that painting and object-making were dead, he has been working in the field of Concept or Idea Art since the 1960s and began in 1969 to record series of numbers on sheets of paper, which he continued for several years. In 1970 he exhibited his Thought Books , which contain his reflections on time and space, represented in numbers and diagrams, and which can be understood as a form of art in its own right. This also includes the construction of models to illustrate his personal concepts (“To understand the world, man thinks in systems”).
In 1975 he had his first solo exhibition at the Paula Cooper Gallery , including stacks of paper made from sheets of paper with numbers ranging from 1 to 2,346,502. The meter-high tower is the continuation of his counting project, which was presented in 1973 in the Artists Space at the invitation of Sol LeWitt and is repeatedly included as an object in exhibitions. Since 1974 he has started to count in the minus range. The counting documents time and is itself an excerpt from the Universal Line illustrated in Time Thought , which can be viewed as an intellectual expression of the longing for a mystical all-connectedness.
The continuous counting can be seen as a drawing that deals with the subject of time: "As an artist, my goal is to present ... illustrations of my thoughts regarding the meaning of time." The exhibited stacks of numbers and drawings document the activity of the artist in a certain period of time, an exhibition of his work is always to be assessed as a retrospective.
He resumed his painting and drawing work around 1971 after the meditative aspect of the counting process, the goal of reaching enlightenment when reaching the million , did not materialize. The consecutive numbers become the signature of his (consciously) infantilistic sketches, drawings and sculptures, which he continuously strings together - including works from all creative phases - to form comprehensive stills of a continuous painting . With his infantile style of painting, which he has retained to this day, after a phase of conceptual work he ties in with the still lifes that he produced when he was eight. He takes it up again and includes it in his work in retrospective shows as an age piece, whereby a work of art is repeatedly exhibited as a current status representative of each year of life.
The numbering of all his works according to the current status in the counting represents the union of two sides of his works: on the one hand linear and conceptual, on the other it is emotional and representative .
Since 1973 he has been recording his dreams in a notebook, which are both verbally told and illustrated. They - and numerous self-analytical texts - are the basis of drawings and paintings in a childishly naive manner. In 1974 he began - again at the suggestion of Sol LeWitt - to execute his templates directly on walls. The approx. 200 wall paintings were consistently painted over white after the end of the exhibition, the small drawings and paintings join the continuous painting.
In the dream motif with the number 2.099.711 (I dreamed I could fly) the desire to “get rid of the cool art, to open up feelings and to expose ourselves” finds a pictorial metaphor . As a surrealistic element, the dream of flying is a reaction against minimalism and conceptual art , and for Borofsky it also embodies a possibility to break through space and time and to get rid of the fetters of reason. As Flying Man , he has detached him from the two-dimensional image surface in numerous installations in different environments since the 1980s .
His oeuvre in the seventies can be seen in the context of New Image Painting , a neo-expressionist movement in the USA that primarily aims to overcome the rigid boundaries of Concept Art and to give the works of art a personal character again: “There were these dreams that there was no rhyme or reason why they were happening. They were fascinating to me and very personal. Many of them were giving me clues to my own life. I began to see them as my personal contribution to the art world at that time. We had Pop Art, which seemed a little too tongue-in-cheek for me, and Minimal Art, which I could relate my counting to, but I was looking for something more personal, more honest and open and direct. "
The "heart" of his work is the drawing, he produces hundreds of them every year: "Drawing for Borofsky is a demonstration of his thoughts, as he explained, 'My thought process is an object'." The drawings are the basis of the murals, pictures and Sculptures that initially became important as an extension of the painting surface in his work. They were not suitable for sale, they are numerous (approx. 200), but short-lived, as they are always painted over after the exhibition.
Borofsky's versatile room installations, varying in expression and pathos , have the character of total works of art made up of a wide variety of media. Well-known motifs and topoi are presented in a modified form - as a red thread, so to speak. The spatial effect is evident in all of them: initially crowded rooms ( Paula Cooper Gallery 1975: accumulation of paintings, drawings, conceptual works and found objects that do not allow a focus on a specific object, but rather give impressions of his work) are refined by exploring the exhibition rooms , the exact placement of the works in the room is becoming increasingly important to him: “Borofsky's only major installation in 1977 was at the Art Gallery at the University of California , Irvine . It was the largest space Borofsky had yet worked, and he had approximately two weeks, the longest period yet, to complete his wall drawings. From the photographs and small drawings in his briefcase he selected older images that had been successful as well as new ones that had not yet been used; he arranged the entire room as if it were a four-sided painting. The space was to encompass the viewer, and primary lines of sight were to bring the whole room into play. From this point on, Borofsky would begin his installations by selecting the most interesting architectural feature of the space and using it as the focus of the exhibition. "
Borofsky left New York in 1977 and has lived in Ogunquit , Maine , ever since . He has been exhibiting his drawings and paintings in American museums and galleries for around 15 years, and later gained international importance primarily through his partly monumental sculptures. After spending 11 years in New York teaching at the School of Visual Arts, he taught at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia for a year . In his academic career and his work as an artist, he deals with theoretical aspects of art and the foundations of his work: “I feel like an idea person, an idea painter… it (the artwork) always has to be the idea with the painting . ”If the infantile-expressive manner of his drawings and objects was a reaction to Minimal and Concept Art, the basis of his work is still intellectual and conceptual achievement.
The thematic center of Borofsky's oeuvre is his own identity as an artist . In a short phase of paintings with upside-down motifs as a surreal aspect after a series of technical experiments (including the projection of drawings on walls), the encounter with works by Georg Baselitz leads to the end of the project, which nevertheless fascinated him very much. His art is object-related, but by no means sober and factual. The personal and political expressiveness of his works, which he creates with simple and generalizing motifs, are for Borofsky a kind of personal participation in the world: “Borofsky's drawings almost always have subjects, for he wants to make a statement, to take a 'political stand '. In place of what he calls 'cool art', he sees connectedness to society. A child of the 60s, he recognizes about that period a 'shared emotional upsurge' in which people were solicitous of one another. To participate in the world, Borofsky hopes to depict subject matter of universal consequence. Toward that end, he has developed a pattern of recurring, generalized themes that are often highlighted by archetypes and archetypal situations. "
The dominant motif in his work, however, is that of the artist himself, as a thinking and feeling ego in the world. Actually, each of his works of art is a self-portrait , but especially his dreams, fears and stories from his life he gives a self-reflective character through the visual and figural representation. According to his own statement, he hopes "to understand my own pains and happynesses", the sheer number and wide distribution of his works, however, not only reflect the search for one's own identity as a person and artist, but rather his existence as an exemplary character, with which many can identify.
His work thus reflects all lines of conflict in human existence. It is about spirituality and physical well-being, about earthly existence and the supernatural, and ultimately also about good and bad. Compassion for others is wrapped in the artist's egocentricity; the written formulation of his dreams represent the artist's inner perspective; his drawings and paintings in which he appears are told from the perspective of a viewer.
The political expressiveness of his drawings comes from the chosen subjects. In the late seventies, his drawings, based on press photos, deal with socially or politically disadvantaged people and classes, especially the population in countries beyond the Iron Curtain .: “Borofsky's preoccupation with political situations has led him to give great emphasis to a cluster of themes concerned in general with violence, oppression, and anxiety. ... Victims of various kinds of oppression are seen frequently in B's art, including imprisoned figures, birds, Cambodians, seals, and the artist himself covered with numbers that recall Nazi tattoos. Elsewhere, heads split apart or are under duress caused by tremendous weights pressing down on them, and men disintegrate in space. Other weapons, too, swords, clubs and guns are shown as the tools of dangerous villains. "He repeatedly deals with the Cold War in installations and murals. On the occasion of the international art exhibition Zeitgeist in West Berlin in 1982 , he was one of the few artists to refer to the divided city: In the Gropius building , he had the Flying Man fly out of a window and cross the dividing wall in flight. In addition, he painted a large section of the wall with a walking man, not a strolling figure, but a running figure.
The Walking Man and the Running Man, both in addition to the Flying Man stylistic device of his sculptural work, represent not only human movement, but also the thought of flight that the confrontation with personal and political fears can trigger. The positive and more optimistic variant is the Flying Man, who overcomes rational and social boundaries and thus becomes the embodiment of freedom and sublimity: “Escape is one way to counter suffering, and Borofsky shows various forms of it in his art… B. himself often achieves flight in the form of his flying figure. He is a full-bodied superman - unlike the Molecule Man - attaining a seemingly effortless escape from daily occurrences. In the air, he has a clearer, more enlightened perspective, which enhances his spiritual quest. "
A more heroic figure is the Hammering Man , who represents another basic motif in Borofsky's oeuvre. Work (mental and physical) stands, as it is the fundamental activity of the world, as a contrast to spirituality and transcendentality . As a component of his installations in museums and galleries, the Hammering Man has developed from a drawing into monumental open-air sculptures that today - like the Hammering Man in Basel (1989) and Frankfurt am Main in 1991 - are primarily in the context of centers of economic activity . The Hammering Man and the counting are for Borofsky as different forms of expression for many years a subject of intense debate and exemplify the complexity of his artistic intentions. The gigantic silhouette of the Hammering Man, whose scale Borofsky varied again and again in several realizations, appears in its incessant movement as a metaphor of human work par excellence. Borofsky speaks of him as “the worker in all of us. We all use our minds and hands to live and learn in the world - or simply to survive. "
As a symbol of the unstoppable passage of time, the Hammering Man corresponds to the new Heartlight sculptures, which contain a digital recording of his own heartbeat. In an analogous way, he does his computerized counting, which he has continued to do since the late 1960s. By writing down the numbers, he makes the passage of time tangible. As an individual act, it is not a symbol, but a real expression of one's work or working hours. Counting is thus Borofsky's abstract biography in which all artistic products, drawings, paintings and sculptures are inscribed, provided with a number that assigns them their place in his personal time system. In this sense, all of Borofsky's works are self-portraits. Borofsky is the Hammering Man.
Until the late 1970s, Jonathan Borofsky took part in exhibitions in the USA and Europe in quick succession ; the works were mainly murals and drawings that were produced on site. In August 1978 he had his first exhibition in the Corps de Garde in Groningen , in 1979, for example, he took part in the Whitney Biennale . There he combined his dream images with plastic elements from these images in order to create a large physical presence for the narrative. His installations were increasingly characterized by a great variety of styles and media. He combined realistic paintings with abstract elements, expressionist drawings, photos, films and figures to create a holistic synopsis of the elements, which at its core resembles a Baroque total work of art. His three-dimensional installations are as expansive as they are complex: “By the use of elements such as string and wire extending from ceiling to floor, wall drawings that continue around corners or extend across doorways, and flyers littering the floor, B. activates all parts of a room making his installations totally encompassing experiences. Even aural and olfactory sensations may be offered to further envelop the viewer. ”For Borofsky, style is“ a manner of working ”, not an achievement in itself. He is interested in the visual impact of the work of art in space and innovative ways of including the viewer. He was allowed to play on the ping-pong table as well as to take giveaways with him. At the Biennale in Venice in 1980, he distributed copies of his drawings to take home.
Jonathan Borofsky would not be a “poet-politician” if he did not try to capture and describe the whole world. The universal spirit, which was already reflected in his Thought Books, is inherent in all of his exhibitions: “He views all mankind as one, collectively united by universal values and universal truths, which are revealed through his art. Thus B becomes the universal man - one representing all. This same principle underlies the character of his installations: disparate components - different materials forms, styles, and ideas - form one whole that transcends its individual parts. "According to his objective," die Menschen to achieve with a generally understandable language - words and pictures ”, today internationally sensational outdoor sculptures and installations dominate his work, with which he has become popular since the eighties. The geographical range of his sculptural work extends from California to Korea .
In Germany alone, he has installed seven other figures in addition to the Flying Man at the University of Augsburg : he enriched documenta 7 in Kassel with smaller Hammering Men , and the figure Man walking to the sky , which was exhibited at DOCUMENTA IX , now has hers fixed place at Kassel main station. The gigantic Hammering Man made of steel was set up in front of the exhibition center in Frankfurt in 1991 , the Molecule Man made of aluminum in 1999 in the middle of the Spree in Berlin . The figure of freedom Freedom (male / female) , which was inaugurated in Offenburg in 2000, is steeped in history as a reminder of the Offenburg Assembly in 1847 , a walking man has been decorating the Munich Re office building on Leopoldstrasse in Munich since 1995 , and another walking man has been decorating a public square in Verden since 2005 .
gallery
Man walking to the sky, Kassel
Ballerina Clown in the Ludwig Forum for International Art
Ballerina Clown in Venice (Los Angeles)
literature
- James Cuno, Ruth Fine: Subject (s) - Prints and Multiples by Jonathan Borofsky 1982–1991. Hanover / New Hampshire 1992.
- Christian Geelhaar, Dieter Koepplin: Jonathan Borofsky. Drawings 1960–1983. Basel, 1983.
- Portikus Verlag Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Jonathan Borofsky. COUNTING 3287718 - 3311003. Frankfurt 1991.
- Mark Rosenthal: Jonathan Borofsky. New York 1984.
- Yvonne Schlosser: Jonathan Borofsky. Flying man. In: University of Augsburg (ed.): Art on campus. Augsburg 2005.
- Katharina Schmidt, Philip Origin: White Fire - Flying Man. American art 1959–1999. Public art collections Basel, Basel 1999.
- Edward van Voolen: Jewish Art and Culture . Translated from the English: Nikolaus G. Schneider. Munich: Prestel, 2006, p. 150 f.
Web links
- Literature by and about Jonathan Borofsky in the catalog of the German National Library
- Official website
Footnotes
- ↑ Ralf Founder: Berlin Wall Art: A Documentation. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-16106-4 .
- ↑ Poticus Publisher: Counting
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Borofsky, Jonathan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 2, 1942 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Boston , Massachusetts |