Grit Richter at ART DEMO DAY

Cologne

Grit Richter’s paintings hover between the abstract and the figurative, and can be as versatile as the themes they touch on: our feelings and thoughts.

Richter studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden for two years before relocating to Hamburg to continue her studies. In 2007, she graduated from the class taught by German contemporary artist Norbert Schwontkowski. With his eye for absurdity and his talent dor capture it in his works, he was a great source of inspiration for Richter.

Florian Waldvogel, the curator of the first ART DEMO DAY, interviewed seven participating artists. From today on, we present a new interview each day.

Florian Waldvogel: What were your most formative experiences during your studies?
Grit Richter: The inspiring and sobering encounters with teachers, the many ‚aha‘ moments, and the stamina and ambitions you quickly develop when you study.

FW: How are social references important for you?
GR: From a sociological point of view, society is a group of people living together. From a constitutional point of view, it is people co-existing in a liberal state. As a person and artist, I am part of society and interested in political, global and local occurrences. As I don’t differentiate between my personal life and my life as an artist, my interests inevitably influence my work. But the sociological aspect is always the main focus. I am trying to express the complexity and perception of inner processes like emotions, memories and the unconscious. With abstract forms, I want to create artistic similes of these processes. Through the transformation into abstract form, I want to show the collective essence of such individual emotionals and mental processes. Starting from the similarities in perception and emotional processes as well as from collective memories, I try to find connotations that give form to something impalpable. 

FW: What is your definition of an exhibition?
GR: An exhibition is a space, an occurrence or a constitution where things like art, toys, artefacts, witnesses of a time period, and actually everything is made accessible for an interested public. Mostly the things on display are presented in a curated context. 

FW: Can abstract painting be political?
GR: It’s difficult to define the term political. I start from my personal understanding of the term that refers to its sociological aspect. So political for me means facing problems of society and expressing it in my art. So yes, abstract art can be political if loaded with content that therefore goes beyond the formal and conceptual. 

FW: Do you feel an urge to be political?
GR: It is not at all my intention to create political art, but in the end I do so as I thematise topics that touch us individually and as a society and that trigger reflection. Maybe it’s an unconscious urge to be political. As a private person, I am certainly interested in topics about our society but I am not thinking about them in a constitutional way. I would rather think about them in a global way – focussing on us, the human beings. I think this is what motivates me as an artist: the analysis of human beings who co-exist within unspecified societies, conflicts and emotions.  

ART DEMO DAY

Read the interview in German / Zum Interview auf Deutsch