Franziska Klotz
In Franziska Klotz’s work, reflections on the self and the other lead to an exploration of images from her own family history. “Heimat” and “Heimat 2”, one of which was created while the artist was still living in Berlin, the other shortly after her arrival in Istanbul, are based on a theme, which for the artist is connected to a multiplicity of personal memories. The fabric’s Orientalizing ornaments seem like an anticipation of what might lie in store for her in the foreign country. Her study of Ottoman art, which neglects illustrative figuration in favour of the ornament, enabled Franziska Klotz to tell the stories of the images that underlie her paintings by the mere use of colour and form: a focus on textures, a rejection of the compositional structures of Western painting and an image build-up that largely relinquishes any spatial-illusory depth effect.
Following an invitation by the Federal Republic of Germany, Franziska Klotz lived in Istanbul from May to October 2015 as part of a scholarship from the Tarabya Cultural Academy. This exhibition features paintings created during the artist’s six-month stay in the metropolis on the Bosporus, as well as recent works painted in her Berlin studio.
Franziska Klotz’s image ideas always contain a kernel of reality. Yet the artist strongly opposes the notion of painting as something that merely illustrates or mirrors lived experience or the visible world. Her works oscillate between objective description and the dissolution of the object into visual stimuli. Her practice is driven by the question of what a committed and timely form of painting might look like in the 21st century.
In Franziska Klotz’s work, reflections on the self and the other lead to an exploration of images drawn from her own family history. Heimat and Heimat 2—one created while the artist was still living in Berlin, the other shortly after her arrival in Istanbul—are based on a theme connected to a multiplicity of personal memories. The fabric’s Orientalising ornaments seem to anticipate what might await her in the foreign country.
Her study of Ottoman art, which favours ornament over illustrative figuration, enabled Franziska Klotz to tell the stories underlying her paintings through colour and form alone: a focus on textures, a rejection of the compositional structures of Western painting, and an image construction that largely relinquishes spatial illusion.
The influence of the non-representational calligraphic art of Ottoman culture, as well as the “non-space” of miniature painting, heightened her fascination with all-over painting structures and led the artist to a new definition of painting. This shift is evident in her latest works, created after her return from Istanbul. OMI I and OMI II revisit motifs from the Heimatpaintings, transferring them into a new compositional context. While the ornamental abstract structures remain, they now encounter an almost haptic materiality, as well as imagery of concealment and overlap.
The paintings Matsch zu Matsch and Matsch zu Matsch 2 are committed to all-over painting and derive their forms and motifs from nature, while The Youth Are Getting Restless and The Youth Are Getting Restless II evoke something more man-made, combining all-over painting with an opening towards space.
Franziska Klotz studied painting at the Berlin-Weißensee Art Academy. She was awarded a Max Ernst scholarship by the city of Brühl and received a scholarship from the Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul from May to October 2015. Her works are exhibited internationally and were included in the 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art in summer 2014 and the exhibition BALAGAN!!! at the Max Liebermann House next to Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate in autumn 2015.
