Duration: 13th – 31st of october 2015

Three-dimensional reality and two-dimensional representation are the central problem areas Fritz Panzer examines in his works. Questions regarding the representational quality of reality follow instantaneously. Artistic creation turns found everyday objects – simple items of interior furnishing such as a bed, a table, a chair or also a carpet – from three-dimensional objects into fragile constructs, whose black-wire contours appear as drawings in space. Numerous protruding wires and the unfinished character of the works invigorate any traces of the world of things and point to the fragility of our perception of reality.

Bodies bounded by wire produce volumes, even if they are transparent except for their contours. One can see through one to the other –until, perhaps, the impression of a two-dimensional image emerges. Certainly, Panzer’s paintings are also marked by multiple layers, which suggest three-dimensionality and, momentarily, raise the question of illusory and real space. “If [our gaze] meets nothing, it sees nothing: it sees only the thing it meets: space, that is what obstructs the view, what catches the eye: the obstacle” (Georges Perec).

In this exhibition, Fritz Panzer brings some of his latest works to Reinisch Contemporary – paintings, drawings, sculptures. It is the world of intimate objects, which occupies the centre of his reflections. The simplest things, all directly related to, or rather, in touch with, the body form the basic vocabulary of this show. Sketch-like in appearance, the works are also sketch-like in their relation to the space surrounding them. They might attempt to define it as residential space, but they do not accomplish it in any conventional sense due to the fragmentary character of the works. Rather, the entire occurrence becomes an image. Individual pieces push into each other; image subjects are oftentimes found as three-dimensional forms in space and vice-versa. Everything together once again gives rise to a space, which can be viewed as an expanded image space.

Fritz Panzer’s art can thus not be exclusively associated with the representational without also considering the informal aspects of painting, which appear to mark the moment everything begins to configure – reality as sketch.

Günther Holler-Schuster