Rayk Goetze: Der Gegenwart
17 September—29 October 2016
Der Gegenwart /The present [The Present–Keeper]
Every age has its keepers and guardians. They protect and preserve what is entrusted to them by duty or convention, either in a heroic pose in the limelight and or hidden in the conspirators’ den. However, by its very nature, the present is an awkward rebel. In a heightened sense, the present is a troublemaker, who doubts, complains, provokes and intervenes in the carefully maintained zeitgeist with lightning-quick tools, blusters, machinates or argues sophisticatedly against the laws of common sense. One against all, just like the present.
Rayk Goetze’s imagery is wonderfully suited for this unruly gesture. The oversized canvasses contain an abundance of objective and emotional gestures. They start with geometric and architectural fragments, graphic details, lakes and mists of paint, masterly highlights and shadows, technical patterns, folkloric designs and abstracts, partially raised masses of oil and acrylic paint that overlap and interpret one another.
On one hand, the figures are the heartbeat of the works. Goetze has always created a strange company of soloists; human dolls, creatures, angels, monsters, typical Goetze creatures at the intersection of paint and fiction. The fragmented or extended bodies, dancing, gesturing, hanging and halved, are in no way inferior to Grünewald’s opulent and degenerate dramatis personae and in their connection to the objective surroundings, they are reminiscent of Adrian Ghenie’s diffusion of figurative elements.
Rayk Goetze’s does not tell any stories with his heroes. He highlights each of their peculiar features individually, portraying their resistance cumulated to a never-ending arsenal of artistic possibilities and eliminating the trivial—a visual adventure. It is still mankind as humanised by the renaissance, but increasingly elementary rather than natural in its depiction. From here, Goetze takes a journey through art history, touching on the sublimity of classical paragons, the agitators of socialist realism, post-modernist “anything goes” and inhabitants of mythical and spiritual parallel worlds, including warlike grotesque supermen.
On the other hand, painting itself is a motif—the intense power of colours and multiple methods of applying paint, as well as its grandest responsibility—portraying the barely conceivable, even if it seems a conceptual rapture or world of dreams. The composition of the concrete and abstract image areas is most similar to the authorial perspective of a montage novel. Or—if we accept sampling as a contemporary cultural technique—the manipulation of textures can be interpreted as an attempt by the artist to compile his own universe. Extraction, medley, arrangement—all virtually removed from the continuum of time. The only link is their origin: an artist, his topic. For, according to Rayk Goetze: »...the present remains in almost apocalyptic times, it resists, yet is reclusive, it is delicate and brutal, well developed and nimble. We don’t know what it looks like but fear that it is splendid!«
—By Tina Simon /Translated by Brendan Bleheen
______________
Dr. phil. Tina Simon
Author and journalist, Leipzig
Behold bright flames illuminated!
A merry club das congregated. *
Each new exhibition by Rayk Goetze may seem like a re-encounter with a truly picturesque crowd. It is a return to internalized and yet equally unknown painterly realms, as if one were to move through a familiar house but with new rooms. ›Grandezza‹ is written above the entranceway in lettering that alternates between neon and brass engraving. In the main complex diversity has already spread itself amongst the gathering; here is neither a dry concept presented nor in pure minimalism indulged. This is painting in its many possibilities and in its sensuality.
The colours shimmer in a complete spectrum, muted signal hues meet upon diffuse depths. Attracted an dazzled by glowing accents, the eye lingers in fine modulated surfaces. In between, rough fractures glimpse through the skin of the paint: here is substance, here a dynamic process took place. These fractures draw the viewer deeper into the image. [...]
Thus this oeuvre establishes a shifted reality whose illustrious company in their the playful yet consequent painterly realms offer the visual flaneur authentic pleasure in the truest sense. One can thoroughly recommend a visit to this world, so please: enter!
* Settembrini in Thomas Mann, ›The Magic Mountain‹
—By Stephan Köhler /Excerpt catalogue ›Rayk Goetze – Universum‹, 2014
Rayk Goetze born 1964 in Stralsund, GDR
lives and works in Leipzig, DE
1975–81 college of physical education, Potsdam
1981–84 steelshipbuilder and A-levels, Rostock
combat diver in the navy
1991 studies of painting, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
with Prof. Arno Rink und Neo Rauch
1995–96 studies at Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Florence, IT
1997 Diploma in Fine Art and 2000 Postgraduate studies
with Prof. Arno Rink, Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig
Exhibitions in Berlin, Stockholm, Hamburg, Munich, Dresden,
Rostock, Baden-Baden, Potsdam et al.
Every age has its keepers and guardians. They protect and preserve what is entrusted to them by duty or convention, either in a heroic pose in the limelight and or hidden in the conspirators’ den. However, by its very nature, the present is an awkward rebel. In a heightened sense, the present is a troublemaker, who doubts, complains, provokes and intervenes in the carefully maintained zeitgeist with lightning-quick tools, blusters, machinates or argues sophisticatedly against the laws of common sense. One against all, just like the present.
Rayk Goetze’s imagery is wonderfully suited for this unruly gesture. The oversized canvasses contain an abundance of objective and emotional gestures. They start with geometric and architectural fragments, graphic details, lakes and mists of paint, masterly highlights and shadows, technical patterns, folkloric designs and abstracts, partially raised masses of oil and acrylic paint that overlap and interpret one another.
On one hand, the figures are the heartbeat of the works. Goetze has always created a strange company of soloists; human dolls, creatures, angels, monsters, typical Goetze creatures at the intersection of paint and fiction. The fragmented or extended bodies, dancing, gesturing, hanging and halved, are in no way inferior to Grünewald’s opulent and degenerate dramatis personae and in their connection to the objective surroundings, they are reminiscent of Adrian Ghenie’s diffusion of figurative elements.
Rayk Goetze’s does not tell any stories with his heroes. He highlights each of their peculiar features individually, portraying their resistance cumulated to a never-ending arsenal of artistic possibilities and eliminating the trivial—a visual adventure. It is still mankind as humanised by the renaissance, but increasingly elementary rather than natural in its depiction. From here, Goetze takes a journey through art history, touching on the sublimity of classical paragons, the agitators of socialist realism, post-modernist “anything goes” and inhabitants of mythical and spiritual parallel worlds, including warlike grotesque supermen.
On the other hand, painting itself is a motif—the intense power of colours and multiple methods of applying paint, as well as its grandest responsibility—portraying the barely conceivable, even if it seems a conceptual rapture or world of dreams. The composition of the concrete and abstract image areas is most similar to the authorial perspective of a montage novel. Or—if we accept sampling as a contemporary cultural technique—the manipulation of textures can be interpreted as an attempt by the artist to compile his own universe. Extraction, medley, arrangement—all virtually removed from the continuum of time. The only link is their origin: an artist, his topic. For, according to Rayk Goetze: »...the present remains in almost apocalyptic times, it resists, yet is reclusive, it is delicate and brutal, well developed and nimble. We don’t know what it looks like but fear that it is splendid!«
—By Tina Simon /Translated by Brendan Bleheen
______________
Dr. phil. Tina Simon
Author and journalist, Leipzig
Behold bright flames illuminated!
A merry club das congregated. *
Each new exhibition by Rayk Goetze may seem like a re-encounter with a truly picturesque crowd. It is a return to internalized and yet equally unknown painterly realms, as if one were to move through a familiar house but with new rooms. ›Grandezza‹ is written above the entranceway in lettering that alternates between neon and brass engraving. In the main complex diversity has already spread itself amongst the gathering; here is neither a dry concept presented nor in pure minimalism indulged. This is painting in its many possibilities and in its sensuality.
The colours shimmer in a complete spectrum, muted signal hues meet upon diffuse depths. Attracted an dazzled by glowing accents, the eye lingers in fine modulated surfaces. In between, rough fractures glimpse through the skin of the paint: here is substance, here a dynamic process took place. These fractures draw the viewer deeper into the image. [...]
Thus this oeuvre establishes a shifted reality whose illustrious company in their the playful yet consequent painterly realms offer the visual flaneur authentic pleasure in the truest sense. One can thoroughly recommend a visit to this world, so please: enter!
* Settembrini in Thomas Mann, ›The Magic Mountain‹
—By Stephan Köhler /Excerpt catalogue ›Rayk Goetze – Universum‹, 2014
Rayk Goetze born 1964 in Stralsund, GDR
lives and works in Leipzig, DE
1975–81 college of physical education, Potsdam
1981–84 steelshipbuilder and A-levels, Rostock
combat diver in the navy
1991 studies of painting, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
with Prof. Arno Rink und Neo Rauch
1995–96 studies at Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Florence, IT
1997 Diploma in Fine Art and 2000 Postgraduate studies
with Prof. Arno Rink, Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig
Exhibitions in Berlin, Stockholm, Hamburg, Munich, Dresden,
Rostock, Baden-Baden, Potsdam et al.