The exhibition: House Faces
On Saturday, February 9, 2019, Lachenmann Art will open the solo exhibition "House Faces" by Yury Kharchenko at 6 p.m. in their Konstanz gallery. The paintings oscillate between abstraction and figuration; subject matter and color are charged with archaic-lyrical forces. Kharchenko's oeuvre arises from his exploration of his identity, his Russian-Jewish roots, his upbringing in Germany, and his engagement with existentialism.
The thematic starting point for his house paintings is the twelve tribes of Israel, symbolized by the twelve houses. The house is the origin of family and culture, a symbol of identity and home. These houses have transformed into sculptural, organ-like beings and crystalline architectures with intense color and radiance. The window appears again and again, another primal form in his work. "For me, the window has always been a symbol of longing, naivety, spirituality, and also of the ironic commentary on spirituality," the painter explains.
The painting: House Variation
The image appears to consist of different layers: The dark "frame" seems closer to us than the lighter area in the center, which is dominated by colorful shapes in its upper part. The edges of the image are dominated by dark colors, primarily shades of green and blue. While the dark areas in the lower part run largely vertically, they converge in the upper fifth or so, forming a point. Overall, it looks as if a dark, heavy curtain is being opened or drawn aside to reveal the vibrant colors and more playful forms behind it. A brown area is visible at the bottom edge.
The background of the lighter area appears primarily as a pale pink surface, but it is not uniform; instead, it is crisscrossed by vertical stripes, as if by liquid paint. This reveals different layers in the painting process – the light background is followed by shapes in pink, red, orange, and yellow, and finally by shapes in green and blue. The colorful forms evoke associations with suns, floral vines, and snakes.
While other works in the 'House' series feature people, even portraits, Yury Kharchenko forgoes similar depictions in this piece, focusing solely on formal language. The surfaces and forms flow seamlessly, revealing the brushwork and technique, and there are hardly any sharp edges; instead, the various colors complement each other by blending and flowing into one another.
