Mordstein, Karl (1937-2006), From the Book of the Dead of a Town (IV), 1983

Karl Ludwig Mordstein(1937 Füssen - 2006 Wilszhofen), From the Book of the Dead of a City (IV) , 1983. Color etching, copy 16/60, 15.5 x 18.5 cm (image), 30 x 35 cm (sheet), 33.5 x 38.5 cm (frame), titled, numbered, monogrammed and dated in lead. Framed behind glass.

- in very good condition

- The presence of the submerged -

The multicolored aquatint etching bears the poetic title "From the Book of the Dead of a City (IV)". The reference to a book, combined with the Roman numeral, suggests that the image is part of a narrative, the fourth chapter of which is before us here. Thus, the sunken city is not erased, but continues to be present in its place, forming - as the numbering indicates - different stages, even if the city as such is no longer visible. Karl Mordstein has made this mysterious presence in the invisible tangible in a haunting way. The brown-green-yellow tones alone have an intense suggestive power. The yellow hills in the background have the effect of a desert landscape, making it clear that this is an inhospitable region, even though the desert sand may harbor something underneath. The dominant foreground is an abstract illustration of a tree growth that looks like a wild thicket, seemingly impenetrable because of the dark tonality. A filigree lattice structure is laid over this area, which has an architectural quality and allows the submerged city to become present. On the other hand, the fluctuating line fragments of the sky, which are just as moving as the dramatically undulating thicket, make the doom present. The chapter of the Book of the Dead of a city, moving in itself, nevertheless unfolds a gravitational calm through the color chord, which animates the viewer to immerse himself in the picture.

About the artist

After graduating from the Werkkunstschule in Augsburg, Karl Mordstein worked as a commercial artist in Munich before becoming a freelance artist and concentrating entirely on his own creations. In 1970 Mordstein married the sculptor Sinen Thalheimer and the artist couple moved to Starnberg. In 1972, Mordstein had his first solo exhibition in Munich, which marked the beginning of an active international exhibition career that lasted for decades. From 1987 the couple lived on the Hollerberg in Wilzhofen.

"It is certainly not wrong to recognize in the impression of his calmly floating color drawings the expression of a state of mind that owes itself precisely to this conscious turning away from the hectic art market: concentrated serenity. It is not a changing state of mind, but an empathy with the supra-individual rhythms of creation, the perpetual genesis in the natural cycle of becoming and passing, which is expressed in them."

- Stefan Tolksdorf

Selected Bibliography

Karl Mordstein. Aquarelle, Gouachen 1972 – 1975, Galerie Angst und Orny, München 1975.

Juliane Roh: Karl Mordstein. Bilder, Paintings 1976 – 79, Frankfurt a. M. 1979.

Siegfried Salzmann (Text): Karl Mordstein. Arbeiten auf Papier, Galerie Dorothea van der Koelen, Mainz 1982.

Galerie Heimeshoff (Hrsg.): Karl Mordstein. "Seelen-Notate"; Bilder, Arbeiten auf Papier, Bildkästen; 1985 – 1988, Essen 1988.

Stefan Tolksdorf (Text): Lebenszeichen. Mordstein, Karl und Sinen Thalheimer, Essen 2009.