The Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is showing the first institutional exhibition outside the United States of the American painter Chris Martin (born 1954). Martin’s expansive compositions stand on the foundation of a social frame of reference, are gestures of reverence and solidarity. He has regularly paid his respects to cherished artist colleagues from the fields of painting and music since the mid 1990s: Pop greats as well as those who work at or beyond the boundaries of the mainstream. At the same time, his works break with the purity requirements of colour field painting and monochrome painting.
The exhibition in the Kunsthalle shows large-format canvases that reveal Martin’s enthusiasm for size and proportions with regard to the human body as well as a selection of small and mid-format paintings, most of which have never been previously exhibited. All works are characterised by energy, intensity and profundity. Drawing on Christian mysticism and anthroposophical symbols, he stands with his “Spiritual Landscapes” in the tradition of a North American romanticism that is little known in Europe. The artist comprehends his paintings as objects with a life of their own that do not require the protection of the White Cube’s holy spaces. Martin’s works hang on building facades or in trees. The Kunsthalle exhibition also extends to the outdoors, demonstrating of all places in the sanctuary of modern abstraction – the aesthetic of the sublime – how valid the Pop Art legacy and the fusion of high and low culture can be.
Curated by Elodie Evers and Gregor Jansen
