Modernism as Pattern

Susanne Paesler, who was born in Darmstadt in 1963 and died in Berlin in 2006, is part of a generation of artists who distanced themselves from the modernist concept of the image as a place of ever new and competing aesthetics. Her artistic work examines the mean­ing of the artwork itself in a world full of already existing images and reproducible aesthetic structures. On the surface, she cultivates a geometric form language of an entirely self-referential constructivist artwork; pattern and choice of color, however, still always appear to refer to extra-pictorial contexts. Accordingly, her paint­ings are at times reminiscent of cheap woolen blankets, Burlington socks and Burberry coats – everyday objects that she uses as both motif and model for her works. Rather than following the principle of the readymade and mount­ing the fabric directly onto stretchers (in re­ference to Palermo’s fabric works), the artist manually copies the patterns so that art, handicraft and design interchange and complement one another. Based on this strategic approach it is almost logical that during the 1990s, ­Susanne Paesler examined the motive of the frame – henceforth a painted (!) image boundary –, trompe l’œil and the issue of the »picture within the picture«. The unique as well as the notion of authenticity are aesthetic visions that Paesler mistrusts. The book on the occasion of the first overview of Susanne Paesler’s work at Kunstmuseum Bonn includes 40 works from 1991 to 2006.

Exhibitions:
Kunstmuseum Bonn, 25/1–5/6/2016
Schauwerk Sindelfingen, 19/6/2015–22/1/2017