Oliver Christmann

Oliver Christmann. Dialectic of Images – Painting between Construction and Intuition.

by Dr. Theresa Nisters

Painting is “the art whose sole domain, in contrast to architecture and sculpture, is the surface.” Etymologically, the name of the artistic genre derives from the Old High German verb “mālōn,” the meaning of which included various activities such as “to make a sign,” “to delineate,” “to colorfully decorate,” “to color,” “to write,” and “to design in the mind.” Thus, even before the concept of an autonomous art that is valid today was defined, painting already existed as a creative practice that implied both the material process of applying paint to draw boundaries and the conceptual achievement of producing signs.

It thus contains the same layers and forms of color that are revealed in the open color structure. Christmann chooses the respective density and colorfulness of the monochrome part in the course of the work process. This interdependence of the two color fields is the reason for the finally homogeneous impression of the picture. For it does not consist, as the first fleeting glance might suggest, of two opponents, but rather, through the painter’s dialectical approach, blends into a cohesive whole.

In the interplay of construction and intuition, Christmann allows the picture its independence as a painterly sign. His painting does not serve as a representative of a message conveyed through it, it does not reveal itself lightly to the viewer’s gaze, but invites him to a conscious perceptive act in which it functions as an autonomous counterpart. In this dialogical situation, Christmann’s paintings stimulate the seeing eye, sending it on a journey across multiform color landscapes whose surfaces suggest the myriad layers of their history. Not the predetermined product of a clearly calculated strategy, Christmann’s painting preserves a freedom that applies both to the paintings vis-à-vis unambiguous attributions and to their creator in the working process as well as to the viewer in his interpretation. The visible traces of the painting gestures provide the possibility for associations, allow an understanding on several levels of the painterly: in addition to the pure perception of the colors, their interplay and the tensions created by the clash of different surfaces, the viewer can become aware of the materiality of the color paste, which does not cover the surface, but rather pastos structured spatiality in itself and finally allows references to the extra-pictorial reality.

In this respect, Christmann’s paintings make painting the subject of painting.
In the dialectic of their construction, they question the surface as the sole domain of painting, transgress the formal boundary of the canvas, and refer to the polyphony of painting as a historical, cultural practice. This is neither to be reduced to a mere depictive function, nor is it to be misunderstood in its abstraction as pure expression of the artist. Despite its complex construction, it also does not address itself exclusively to the intellectual abilities of its viewer, but conveys intensity and physicality through color and remains open to figurative interpretation. In the harmony of all these aspects Christmann gives his painting an unmistakable existence.

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Exhibit Cat. Oliver Christmann. Dialectic of Images – Painting between Construction and Intuition, Galerie Josef Nisters, Speyer 2017, pp. 4-6.
[1] Jahn, Johannes: Malerei, in: Ders.: Wörterbuch der Kunst. Stuttgart: Alfred Körner Verlag, 1950, pp. 305-306, p. 305.
[2] Cf. keyword “malen,” in: Kluge, Friedrich: Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache. 24th, revised and updated edition, edited by Elmar Seebold, Berlin/New York: De Gruyter 2002, p. 593.
[3] Christmann, Oliver: Thoughts on the genesis of my work, 2017.
[4] Cf. note 2.

Item Ulm
Company Seele, Gersthofen
German Postal Workers’ Union Stadtsparkasse Ludwigshafen/R.
Chamber of Industry and Commerce Frankfurt a.M.
City savings bank Schweinfurt
Centre Francois Baclesse, Luxembourg
Company Seuffer, Calw
City of Weingarten
Collection Anton Dörner, Heilbronn
Savings Bank Hohenlohekreis
Augustinum Meersburg
Industria, Stuttgart
Volksbank Bielefeld-Gütersloh eG