English translation of the German original.
Heinz Aschenbrenner’s artistic beginnings lay in the circle of Hermann Nitsch and Viennese Actionism, which Nitsch had helped to shape. He developed this approach further: while expression remains gestural and emerges from movement, it is no longer entirely uncomposed. At the centre of his practice is a kind of “controlled chance”, a contradiction that leads to a painterly paradox: a work created in the mind is subsequently carried through movement into a state of spontaneity. Consciousness and spontaneity enter into a relationship reminiscent of Asian philosophy; their charged opposition ultimately gives rise to a harmonious, self-contained whole. “Impasto application,” writes the critic J. S. Stephan, “literal mountains and valleys of paint compel the viewer to journey through wintry visions of the end of time before finally revealing an unexpected harmony.” In his works, the artist shows how the different levels of human perception oscillate between consciousness and spontaneity. The dynamism of his brushwork stands for the freedom of an expressive force emerging from the subconscious, which can unfold with full intensity within a carefully conceived framework and a specially developed technique.
LDX Gallery Artodrome, Berlin 2013
Source: previous artist website. Published online in March 2021; text year as stated in the heading.
All texts