The path is the destination: Marc Jung “on the way to painting”
Figurative post-abstract expressionism is what the artist Marc Jung says he brings to the canvas with spray cans, oil and varnish. Neither purely figurative nor abstract, neither graffiti nor classical painting: Marc Jung's art resists simple pigeonholing. Effective, dirty work, such as Dripping ¹ are in contrast to the accuracy of forms that sometimes find their way onto the canvas with stencils, but more often by hand. Marc Jung's works fluctuate between the poles of chaos and order and "are perhaps a bit like myself," says the artist, whose exuberantly extroverted presence often belies his structured way of working. His works are created layer by layer. The lowest layers are often no longer visible at all or only appear in spots as colored shadows; they are fundamental as the basis for the creation of the works.
He is still "on the way to painting," says Jung. Anyone who is reminded of Picasso or Basquiat when looking at his works of art will recognize, among other things, Marc Jung's intention not to commit himself to purely representational mimesis. Instead, the viewer is presented with Jung's search for a contemporary form of expression in image form. This is clearly one of those cases in which the path is the destination. Knowing the rules of the art cosmos, Jung subverts them ironically like Kippenberger, morally but without pointing the finger like his professor Richter, cynically provocative like Meese and with a large portion of musical subculture on the canvas. Above all, it is music that inspires him and accompanies him while he paints. The titles of the works are evidence of this, for example humorously distorted snippets from German or English rap songs: "You are not a gang member, you are a tourist." ² Based on the recontextualization undertaken, who is the addressee of this suspicion...? The image, the viewer and the artist himself are all equally put to the test of art.
—Theresa Brauer
¹ English: dripping; in postmodern art, at least since Jackson Pollock, this has been understood to mean the seemingly uncontrolled throwing of paint onto a painting surface
² Quote from “King's Dead” by Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Future and James Blake, album Redemption , published 2018
