Tomio Koyama Gallery Tokyo - Kyoto | TKG Editions　Ginza - Kyoto

» Introduction:

In the artworks by Bernhard Brungs, we encounter some great historical figures of literature, such as German poet Else Lasker-Schüler, Austrian poet Georg Trakl, French maudit Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine. In addition to these poets, we face some more characters of the time, like the publisher of "Der Sturm" Herwarth Walden, the director of the film "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. His main approach is literary circles like French symbolists and German expressionists. It shows that a network of personal and artistic influences connects all of them. Brungs follows the paths of their work and their lives and tries to create images that picture some characteristic situations of his protagonist's biographies in an emotional and sensitive way. The traditional techniques of creating a crayon base on canvas, in combination with oil painting in very thin liquid layers give the paintings their unique look. As Brungs only uses darkish colors, all light shades result from allowing the basement to shine through the grazing layers. The restrained spectrum of color, the unique shading and lighting characterizes Brung's paintings. Despite the modest grey base, the colors produced by Brung's palette shines distinctively.

» Concept:

The exhibition title "Die Schläfer" (the sleepers) is a quote from the title of a poem by German writer Georg Heym (1887-1912). He was an important poet among the early Expressionists, who wrote about the strangeness of distorted urban life and anxiety about the end of the world, being influenced by Baudelaire and Rimbaud. He died young accidentally while ice skating. The one facing him in the dark room is poet Emmy Hennings, the later wife of Hugo Ball who was the leader of Dada movement. In the early 20th Century when the disquieting footsteps of war was heard, the brilliant poets and artists who had and could have met then, gather in one place by the magic of Brung's brush. He presents with the show some small scale pencil drawings, colored with water color and /or crayon. Two scupture works are almost like a quote of the classic presentation of a famous person's burst. The yellow wax has an almost skin-like sensitivity. Brungs designed a head of the writer Hugo Ball placed on a small wooden table and a head of George Heym, presented on a Wilhelmina era cabinet which holds vintage antique books that mattered to young Heym and had or may have had influence on his work. We will be showing 6 new paintings, 9 drawings and 2 sculptural works.

» Artist Biography:

Bernhard Brungs was born in Bielefeld, Germany in 1974. He lives and works in Berlin. He received master's degree from the Academy for Fine Arts, Düsseldorf, under Prof. Fritz Schwegler. In 2003, founding of project "aquarellbluten - Kunst Klub Köln" was done with Svenja Deininger and Marcus Breocker in Cologne. He showed in Neuer Aachener Kunstverein and Kunstverein Braunschweig to being with, and is showing in many European cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Vienna, and London. In 2001 he received Günter - Drebusch Prize from the city of Witten. In 2005, he was selected for the London artist residency by Kunststiftung Nordrhein Westfalen.