From 18 October to 13 December 2013, Deutscher Künstlerbund presents works by Inge Krause, 2013 winner of the “HAP-Grieshaber-Preis der VG Bild-Kunst” awarded by Stiftung Kunstfonds.

Inge Krause’s central theme is seeing and the limits of the human capacity for seeing. Over her graphite and pastel drawings, she applies many layers of transparent and coloured varnish. Layer by layer, the motifs disappear under the paint. The resulting glossy surfaces with their flickering materiality keep the viewer at a distance, but at the same time a space of illusion “behind the mirror” opens up, drawing the viewer’s gaze in. Like eyes slowly getting used to the dark, one must approach the pictures gradually. Her works with references to current events are based on similar technical processes. By rubbing and wiping, motifs from newspapers and magazines merge with the underlying fabric, transformed into diffuse pictorial spaces. The resulting ambivalence of this subtle and soundless painting is both disconcerting and fascinating.

In the project space at the Deutscher Künstlerbund, Inge Krause is showing both older and new works, displaying the broad spectrum of her oeuvre and inviting the viewer to look very carefully. Using a Beatles song for its title, the exhibition extends from non-figurative tone painting, using finely nuanced processes to create a diffuse and compelling colour space, through to drawings based on motifs from press photographs – as in the “endless headline” project, where her artistic procedures push images from daily news media to the limits of recognizability. The question of visibility and visual perception is also addressed in the windows specially designed for the show.

Inge Krause (born 1948), whose teachers at Hamburg’s Academy of Fine Arts included Gotthard Graubner and Stanley Brouwn, is the 15^th winner of the  HAP Grieshaber Prize.

By awarding this prize named after the painter and woodcutter HAP Grieshaber, VG Bild-Kunst (Germany’s copyright agency for visual art) honours an artist who made a decisive contribution to the agency’s development. From the 1970s onwards, Grieshaber campaigned hard for copyright on behalf of his fellow artists, as well as being a strong advocate of improved social support for artists.

The prize money for the HAP Grieshaber Prize is provided by the cultural organization of VG Bild-Kunst, using funds held back in accordance with the agency’s plans for copyright payments.

VG Bild-Kunst and Stiftung Kunstfonds
in collaboration with Deutscher Künstlerbund