In his new series of works, Frank Nitsche turns to surprisingly small formats. On the one hand, in his intimate works he strongly reduces his pictorial language to geometric forms that at first glance resemble standardized symbols. On the other hand, Nitsches canvases were rarely as physical as in this current cycle.
At the center are mostly blue symbols. On their sides, however, the overlays, layers of paint, and traces of construction lay like a physical skin over the picture carrier, distracting the viewer's gaze, seducing him to read the surfaces, telling of traces of the painting process and thus demanding an almost unprotected and direct examination of the panels and the meaning we attribute to them.
In his spontaneous and strongly body-related way of working, Nitsche is more than ever investigating the extent to which internal and external surfaces can be contrasted and charged by different strengths and tensions. The physical act of painting, influenced by the physical and emotional condition of the painter, by his environment during the painting process, is always perceptible in layers and the various insights beneath the disciplined surface. The resulting constellations and pictorial spaces are reduced and ordered in protracted processes that are repeatedly subjected to corrections. What is striking about the new works, however, is not only the virtuosity in which deep pictorial narratives can be inscribed into abstraction with the most reduced forms. Also astounding is the emotionality of the works, in which at times it is no longer possible to clearly decide whether they are really only images or physical beings, with whom we as viewers must respectfully arrange ourselves in space.