This catalogue gives an overview of the works by German painter Matthias Dornfeld, who depicts traditional subjects of classical paintings—landscapes, portraits, still lifes—with a style inherited from naïve expressive painting.
This book is a catalogue of paintings by the German artist Matthias Dornfeld. No more, no less. As the essay by Katie Geha point out, Dornfeld creates paintings that hinge on the hysterical. He repeatedly paints familiar subjects: landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. “The subjects and motives are simple,” he explains. “They come without thinking. They're stupid, banal, commonplace, clichés.” It is through the repetitive use of the familiar, even boring—both in process and in subject matter—that Dornfeld subverts these painterly tropes and, in turn, makes them strange, makes them funny.
The small-scale
paintings of Matthias Dornfeld (born 1960 in Esslingen, Germany, lives and works in Berlin) are based on his longtime interest in conventional themes, such as
portraiture,
landscape and still life. Within his interest in particular painting discourses, he not only operates in the tradition of classical pictorial genres, but also generates a visual aesthetic characteristic of earlier approaches to naïve
expressive painting. Dornfeld's work ultimately demonstrate that they are more acutely situated in the inventive painting strategies of analytical
abstraction.
Dornfeld studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich. Recent solo exhibitions include “Paintings Sweet Paints” (with Billy Childish) at Neuer Achener Kunstverein (2014), “Viele Grüße!” at Reception, Berlin (2013), “OH my Goodness” at Blanket Gallery, Vancouver. His work was included several group presentations, e.g. “Portraits” at BolteLang, Zurich (2015), “Commodious Thoughts from Outer Space” curated by Gerwald Rockenschaub at Krobath, Vienna (2013), “Transzendenz Inc.” at Autocenter, Berlin (2010).
