Michael Venezia: Painting

The words wait at the gate of painting

The works of Michael Venezia, born in Brooklyn in 1935, are undoubtedly among the most unconventional artistic works of minimal art. His "spray paintings" and "bars" follow the minimalist dictum of spatialising colour and expanding the pictorial space. However, while Dan Flavin and Donald Judd chose the opposite path, namely to renounce painting altogether, Michael Venezia has devoted himself entirely to painting. His work reveals the characteristics of an aesthetic presence that only painting can develop: texture, colour application and processuality. Michael Venezia thus succeeds in making a special turn under minimalist auspices: he leads painting into the state of the "specific object" and adds a minimal chapter to the history of abstract expressionism. This catalogue aims to give Michael Venezia's work the status it deserves, from its beginnings to the present day. Various autobiographical materials are therefore interspersed in the careful presentation of the works, as well as an entertaining and very informative interview with Michael Venezia by Tiffany Bell, who became known as an interpreter of Agnes Martin and Dan Flavin.

Exhibition:
Kunstverein Heilbronn, 6/2 - 29/5/2016