About

Cesar
Christoph Ruckhäberle

18.01.18 → 10.03.18

Sorry We're Closed / Sébastien Janssen is  very happy and proud to present for the first time a solo exhibition of new works by Christoph Ruckhäberle.

 

The reclining women in relatively Small horizontal formats entitled Netsuke (2016) inquire after their standing. The title of this series makes reference to Small Japaneses sculptures worn on the sash of a kimono, wich had no pockets, in the seventeenth century and wich served a purely functional purpose before later becoming aesthetically valued objects. In terms of style, Christoph Ruckhäberle draws on and conjugates Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Juan Mirò, Henri Laurens, Henry Moore, the japanese woodcut, Pop Art, and much more, and gives them a thorough going over.

 

What results are segmented, polyperspectival, convuloted figures, deliciously shiny and colorful roomates, nude or clothed. The artist produces them using a special masking technique, so that one can attest to a remote resembmance with a typographic process in terms of their appearance, wich has been liberated from any gestural expression whatsoever. The artist applies tape to areas of his pictorial surface step by step and then fills the exposed areas with enamel. This technique is accompanied by slight, incalculable paint bleed, and unmistakable indication of artistic handcraft. Each of the total of twenty Netsuke ladies is enamel-born out of the range of products from a wideley known do-it-yourself paradise. The artist specifically uses commercially available categorized paint for the purpose of pointing out the decidedly planned and gradual process in the creation of his precious sparkling items.

 

Text: Annett Reckert

 

Christoph Ruckhäberle (b.1972, Germany) has had critically acclaimed exhibitions at MoCA (Massachusetts), Migros Museum (Zürich), Wels Stadtglaerie (Wels), Arken (Ishøj), Sammlung-Essl (Klosterneuburg), Museum der bildenden Künste (Leipzig), and Museo Nacional de la Estampa (Mexico City) among others. His work is held in public collections such as MoMA (New York), Saatchi Collection (London), Rubell Family Collection (Miami), Essl Museum - Contemporary Art (Vienna), Berkeley Art museum (Berkeley) and The Olbricht Collection (Bremen).

Selected Images