Henning Strassburger: Mai 2023

FEEL GOODDana Žaja: In preparation for this interview, I had read texts about your pictures and found this sentence from the catalogue for your first exhibition with us: "Strassburger integrates found material from reality as part of a specific present moment. Everything is recorded, disparate things are combined and written on: Existential angst, fun culture, and lust fulfilment." When I thought about this, the first question I asked myself was: what does reality actually mean to you?
Henning Strassburger: I quite like "existential angst, fun culture and lust fulfilment". More reality is hardly possible. But I wouldn't exactly see myself as an expert in interpreting reality.
DZ: In your notes on painting, you write about abstraction: "The perfect abstract picture is achieved when it has become wallpaper". Do you see that as a negative? Then why did you paint abstractly for so long? And why not now?
HS: I achieved wallpaper status last year, and I'm quite happy to say that. Mission accomplished. However, I really didn't have much desire to continue doing it as a trademark art and a sure cash cow. I have colleagues who can do it better and run it as a big business. But I wanted to get back into the adventure. I put everything I had into the last abstract painting for the time being and then closed the door on myself. I really don't feel like painting the same picture every day.
DZ: Your obsession with pools and splashes now takes on a melancholy touch in its figurative instance, which in turn is broken up by your typical colour palette.
HS: I like to work on the topic, there's a lot to it. Now I'm adding the figure as a problem. I have the feeling that she's looking critically at my painting at the same time as I'm painting her. Maybe with a shake of the head, I don't know. I can confront the figures with a painting that they have to take a position on. Perhaps they buckle a little before it or are overwhelmed by it. In any case, it gives me room for manoeuvre in which I can open up this barrel. I had exhausted this for myself with the abstract pictures.
DZ: "As long as mankind can see, there will be painting." On the one hand, it seems as if you want the viewer to see themselves in your paintings or to immerse themselves in them. On the other hand, you often mix your colours with white so that the pictures remain flat. Is it important to you that a painting is perceived in its mediality? Or should they rather trigger self-reflection in the viewer?
HS: That sounds super esoteric. But of course, the aim of painting should be for someone to look at it. And flatness is the domain of painting because, conservatively speaking, it takes place on a surface. You can also immerse yourself in something in a video installation or in participative entertainment art. But when you stand in front of painting, it always taps into the brain synapse that tells you: PICTURE! This could be seen as a lack of complexity, but it's this inadequacy that really makes it work.
(Excerpts from the interview)Exhibition:
CFA Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin: 28/4 - 17/6/2023