Mordstein, Karl (1937-2006), Field, 1983

Karl Ludwig Mordstein(1937 Füssen - 2006 Wilszhofen), Field 1983. Color etching, copy 13/65, 22.5 x 28 cm (image), 40 x 45 cm (sheet), 43 x 48 cm (frame), titled, numbered, monogrammed and dated with pencil. Framed behind glass.

- in very good condition

- Field research -

In accordance with the title, we see a transverse rectangular field that is kept in a brownish tone. However, the field is not an opaque surface, but an inhomogeneous zone of different color intensities with a multitude of individual fluctuating formations. The field is thus not a color surface, but an event space within which something takes place that has been captured here in the stage before our eyes. And the surrounding space of the field is the periphery of the event space, whereby with the hatched zone directly under the field and the gray and brown linear surfaces at the lower edge the ingredients of the field are indicated legend-like.

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.