Arthur Löwen

RECORDINGS

Project Info

  • 💙 fiebach, minninger
  • 🖤 Arthur Löwen
  • 💜 Text excerpt: Maurice Funken, ˈkoun(t)ərˌpoint, NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein
  • 💛 Martin Plüddemann

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Arthur Löwen, RECORDINGS, installation view, 2022
Arthur Löwen, RECORDINGS, installation view, 2022
Arthur Löwen, RECORDINGS, installation view, 2022
Arthur Löwen, RECORDINGS, installation view, 2022
Arthur Löwen, RECORDINGS, installation view, 2022
Arthur Löwen, RECORDINGS, installation view, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Variation 24), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022; Index (Celeste 15), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Variation 24), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022; Index (Celeste 15), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Variation 24), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022; Index (Celeste 15), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Variation 24), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022; Index (Celeste 15), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Variation 23),Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022; Index (Pinot), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Variation 23),Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022; Index (Pinot), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (AZZURRO / pentimenti), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022; Index (Variation 23), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (AZZURRO / pentimenti), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022; Index (Variation 23), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Celeste 15), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Celeste 15), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (AZZURRO / pentimenti), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (AZZURRO / pentimenti), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Dal Segno 15), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Dal Segno 15), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Variation 24), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Variation 24), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Pinot), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Pinot), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (AZZURRO / pentimenti), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (AZZURRO / pentimenti), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Celeste 15), 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Celeste 15), 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Variation 23), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Variation 23), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Dal Segno 15), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen, Index (Dal Segno 15), Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, 2022
Arthur Löwen’s paintings pass through various phases in the process of creation, which always address the making of paintings as a formation. Thus Löwen has developed an individual painterly setting that both drives his artistic practice forward and is able to limit it in a productive way. The artist continues the constant repetition of the procedure in variations and thus provides a technical framework for the artistic exploration. In this way, the artist applies thin layers of paint to the front of the canvas, which are covered by a final contrasting layer. While this is still wet, he lays the painting support on an absorbent cloth. The back of the canvas facing him now becomes the parallel playground of the painting’s production. Deliberately applied painterly gestures can be detected on the front of the canvas: imprints refer to physicality, a thrown “monoblock” testifies to dynamism and direction, the random placement is intentional, the folding of the imprinted cloth is carefully chosen. In addition, Löwen’s name appears on the canvas in mirror writing, which is translated as an abstract sign by means of a sweeping line and is by no means to be understood as a signature. This can also be understood as a critical reference to the idea of authorship and thus also to the established principles and historiography of painting. Writing, gesture, imprint: the paintings reflect themselves in their creation. The artist thus reveals the act of painting in its components. Arthur Löwen’s painting is determined by sign-like traces that negotiate the question of meaning and non-meaning. This is also the case in the new series Variation, in which the artist uses the music-related term “counterpoint” as a painterly reference. Counterpoint describes a special compositional technique that confronts an existing sequence of notes as a counter-voice and is simultaneously perceived as an aesthetic construction. Following the analogy of music and painting that has developed over centuries – one only has to think of the concept of color tone or tonal color – Löwen transfers this technique of juxtaposition to his painterly works. Like two independent melodies played at the same time, Löwen’s paintings also accommodate different painterly concepts on the same picture surface, separated by a clear division in the centre of the picture. The upper part of the picture follows Löwen’s established procedure of his artistic index and thus creates the always variable but nevertheless characteristic structure. This is met in the lower part of the picture by painting as a counter-voice – a texture which, flowing, seemingly following no rules, opens up a new space of possibilities, or sometimes, left to chance, seeks the opening.
Text excerpt: Maurice Funken, ˈkoun(t)ərˌpoint, NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein

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