 |  |
 |  |
Andreas Golder
The paintings of Andreas Golder shift between figurative forms – some naturalistic, others expressive – and broadly worked abstract passages. This formal ambivalence is reflected in his subject matter, which is a mix of high and low culture, with sly references to the history of painting alongside visceral smears of paint and loose splashes of colour.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, Golder moved, along with his family, from the Soviet Union to Germany. His initial artistic training in Russia, at a school for specially gifted children, was grounded in academic realism, with emphasis on precision and classical representation. He eventually rejected the rigidity of this technique, adopting an approach which, in his own words, occupies an ‘area between the realistic and the abstract, the physical and the metaphysical; my paintings are another way of telling a story or a view of the world’.
The starting point for Golder’s work is often based in a combination of art history, pop culture and personal narratives. Puns, comic anecdotes and violent gestures converge in paintings that, as curator Christian Gether points out, ‘are not portraits but rather meta-types, commenting on the general state of culture in society today’. Drama im Pyjama (Drama in Pyjamas, 2007) features a misshapen body, slung casually over a washing line. The decaying, gangrenous flesh of the figure, drawn against a black background, references aspects of Francis Bacon’s twisted physiognomies, while the application of the paint oscillates between loose, expressionistic brushwork to more representational depictions of teeth and eyes. An absurd, cartoon-like atmosphere undercuts the morbid portrayal of decomposing flesh.
Das Weg in die Glück (The Road to Happiness, 2005) features a model, whose body is depicted in evenly smeared paint, striding confidently down a pink catwalk. Behind her, photographers’ flashbulbs pop in ecstatic explosions of white paint, while the audience, brought to life with incredible economy as dozens of white dots to represent a cluster of wide-open eyes, watches the event. The model’s countenance betrays a manic demeanour, grinning mouth and a single, wildly staring eye, as if she is gliding inexorably toward disintegration. Golder explores the realms of value, power and spectacle, and the collisions between aspiration and happiness, possession and fulfilment.
Andreas Golder was born in Ekaterinenburg, Russia in 1979; he lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Recent exhibitions include ‘It has my name of it’ solo exhibition at ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark (2007), PAINT-O-RAMA (group show) at the Stadtgalerie Kiel, Germany (2006) and Liverpool Biennale Independents 2004
More on Andreas Golder
| Artworks | |
 | II 4 Images |
 | III 4 Images |
 | IV 4 Images |
| Videos/Audio | |
 | Andreas Golder, White Cube Hoxton Square 2008 Video |
 | Related Texts |
| CV | |
| Bibliography | |
| Exhibitions | |
| Surgite mortui venite ad Judicium 16 Jan—21 Feb 2009 | |
| Editions | |
| Mama Edition of 90 | |
| Mama (black and white) Edition of 40 | |
| Papa Edition of 40 | |
 | Back to Artist Index |