Schwarz, Reiner (*1940), Under the mask of the Venetian girl, 1968

Reiner Schwarz(*1940 Hirschberg), Under the mask of the Venetian girl , 1968. Lithograph, 30 cm x 24 (image), 59 cm x 42 cm (sheet size), signed “R.[einer] Schwarz” in pencil lower right, dated “[19]68”, identified as copy no. 78/80 lower left and inscribed “Unter der Maske des venezianischen Mädchens” in the center.

- in very good condition

- Monstrous Reality -

Inspired by the art of Guiseppe Arcimboldo, Reiner Schwarz creates heads from interlocking parts, except that these are not elements of flora and fauna, but parts of the human body. The monstrous effect is heightened by the fact that one of the faces is a raised mask behind which the true face is revealed. The mask of the Venetian Renaissance beauty is much blander than the actual ugly face satirized by the peacock feathers, which nevertheless displays an expressive and mysterious beauty in its own way, even if it contradicts the formulated ideal of the mask. By addressing the art of the Renaissance with the beautiful female mask, the painting is also a commentary on art history, which, instead of recognizing the monstrous reality, depicts the fantasy world of ideal beauty.

About the artist

After being expelled from Hirschberg in Silesia, Reiner Schwarz spent his youth in Hannover. In 1960 he began studying at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Mac Zimmermann and produced his first lithographs. In 1962 he made study trips to Florence and Venice, and in 1965 to Rome. He was particularly fascinated by Italian art, Sienese painting, and Mannerism. His first solo exhibition at the Galerie Schnoor in Bremen in 1964 was the beginning of more than 150 exhibitions in Germany and abroad.

In 1974 Reiner Schwarz established a print studio in Berlin, where he perfected the technique of lithography, using up to 17 colors on various tone papers. In 1987, his artistic encounter with Rolf Münzer and Peter Schnürpel at the Kätelhön print studio inspired him to explore the world of "abandoned and lonely" everyday objects as melancholy traces of memory instead of people. Initially, he used large-format wrapping paper from the GDR. In 1990 Schwarz became a member of the Künstlersonderbund in Germany.

Galerie Brusberg, which represented the artist for more than 20 years, published a catalogue raisonné of Reiner Schwarz's lithographs in 1984.

"He does not want to be just a draughtsman, but an interpreter, a reinterpreter, a metaphorist who creates mutants and thus visualizes the invisible, the known and the seemingly banal that is about to be transformed into eternity; the brief moment of an all too fleeting present, nature next to nature, reality next to reality. It is therefore a subversive realism that questions our everyday thinking, that refuses to grasp things quickly by means of exaggerated precision, that thwarts cognition, denatures the world and melts it into a pictorial puzzle [...]".

Edwin Kratschmer