Myth and reality converge in the paintings of German artist Stefan
Kürten.
City parks, suburban backyards, corporate courtyards, and industrial
park
landscapes embody the search for a natural but contained utopia,
with
everything in its right place. These works masterfully simulate
such
artificially idyllic places while belying the dark, desperate
futility behind
them.
For several years Kürten's work has been about creating sites
that don't
exist at all, but that remind us of places we've seen or been
to before.
Sometimes incorporating bits and pieces of architecture from photographs
-- banal office buildings, familiar houses -- he creates the "perfect"
composition, an archetype that we recognize and accept as authentic.
His
most reent work combines several painting styles he's explored
in the
past few years. Interweaving realistic, scientific, and symbolic
approaches
to landscape on a single canvas, Kürten examines how we perceive
nature in its perfection.
|
