Borte

Exhibition text: Aschenbrenner has collected African masks for some time and engaged early on with Sigmund Freud’s “Totem and Taboo” and “The Interpretation of Dreams”. In the current “BORTE” series, he draws parallels between his paintings with bands of fabric, his works on paper and African art, presenting them alongside African masks. The canvases recall dream landscapes and convey something nightmarish, yet are barely threatening; they evoke expansiveness and hope. Aschenbrenner works strips of jute into the canvases, creating a horizon whose transparency suggests an elusive reality. Strips of fabric and woven materials were also frequently used in African art. The twentieth-century avant-garde, above all Pablo Picasso, engaged with African and Oceanic art. Alongside Léger, Moore, Giacometti and Brancusi later drew directly on this repertoire of forms. In 1926, Man Ray photographed “Kiki with African Mask”.

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