Author Archives: thilohoffmann

WORK STATIONBruxelles, 2015 In 1978, Croatian artist Mladen Stilinovic documented himself sleeping in a Zagreb gallery, giving his performance the title “Artist at Work”. Stilinovic’s gesture was not only a critique of the ideologization of work under socialism, but also of the imperative of productivity weighing upon Western art. Stilinovic went on to write theContinue reading “Pierre Bismuth”

TURNING POINTZurich, 2016 Als Kasseläner muss ich bei diesem Bild an Allerleirauh denken: Ein altdeutsches Märchen, in dem der König seine Tochter heiraten möchte, weil allein sie an den Liebreiz seiner verstorbenen Frau heranreicht. Exemplarisch für ihre Schönheit beschreiben die Brüder Grimm die goldene Farbe ihres Haars, denn Wasserstoffperoxid kannten sie noch nicht. Um denContinue reading “Ursula Hodel”

HIS MASTER’S VOICE Manhattan, 2011 As a realist painter, I work only from my direct experience of what I see before me. I made this decision, about what I would do as an artist, as a teenager when I served as an Infantry soldier in the United States Army in Italy during World War II,Continue reading “Philip Pearlstein”

TUESDAY AFTERNOONSent, 2018 Ein schöner, sanfter Schlitten zum Beispiel. Drei Paar Stützen, vier solide Leisten, zwei dicke Holme, die den Aufbau über den Kufen wie ein satt klingendes Orchester tragen. Dick wirkt er und flauschig, der Schlitten, obwohl er aus Marmor ist. Anscheinend hat der Schnee so lange auf den Leisten und Holmen gelegen, bisContinue reading “Not Vital”

VON WEIT HERTegna, 2015 in das weithin immer für diesen augenblickbist du demimmergrünen feueranvertraut du hörst das flüstern – mitten in den zweigen verwundertüber dieses zwiegesprächvon keim und knospehalm und ähreschatten und licht verwandelt sich dein atemzug dein augenspiel und die gebärden werden weichsie biegen sichdem hellen wind ganz unbesorgt und freiin ihrer art zuContinue reading “Ingeborg Lüscher”

THE TRAPEZE ARTISTBrooklyn, 2014 For 20 years, I have been filming the same woman in my movies. It was an accident really. No one else was around when I tested a used super 8 camera bought from a flea market. So I made this 27-year-old-girl, who happened to be right there, step into the frame.Continue reading “Shannon Plumb”

MAYBE ELCOMBEElcombe, 2013 The world has shrunk. We are saturatedwith knowledge, so-called facts, blindedto the simple acceptance of our existence. Painting is a simple clarity, an interpretationwithout proof and yet a meaning to whatwe can no longer name. Tone, the sensitivity of light and dark,is missing from modern life. It has beensuperseded by shape, theContinue reading “Peter Joseph”

UNTITLED (GARAGE) London, 2013 All sculptural questions apply, and probably do each time. Surrounded by raw, found, lost and reclaimed material, Mike Nelson has to consider, each time, whether to err in favour of making an independent sculpture, to wholly submit to a particular place, or whether to give in to expectation and produce aContinue reading “Mike Nelson”

THINK TANKZurich, 2018 – Gianni Motti, who are you?– I’m 70.5 kilograms of atoms. If we could align them side by side, we would not have enough zeros to measure the length. Gianni Motti

ANOTHER GREEN WORLDBridgehampton, 2014 Casual and relaxed with one leg slightly bent, artist Mary Heilmann sits on a turquoise chair in a field of freshly planted vegetation. The latter is seen in perspective, extending into the distance in foreshortening rows. On one side, the field is already a dense green; on the other, it isContinue reading “Mary Heilmann”