Maike Gräf, Thomas Putze, Detlef Waschkau – Sex. Stadt. Leben.

Stadtluft macht frei. Das mittelalterliche, immerwährende Glücksversprechen verbindet sich mit ökonomischer Mechanik und lässt die Städte bis heute unaufhörlich wachsen. Weltweit leben über die Hälfte aller Menschen in der Stadt, in Europa sind es schon zwei Drittel.

Die Ausstellung in der Stern-Wywiol Galerie zeigt drei künstlerische Sichtweisen auf die Lebensform unserer Zeit. Maike Gräf, Thomas Putze und Detlef Waschkau entwickeln aus dem alten Bildhauermaterial Holz und der klassischen Figuration jeweils eine sehr eigene, dezidiert zeitgenössische Formensprache, in der sie die Grundthemen moderner Gesellschaften verhandeln. Sie finden ihre Motive im Spannungsfeld zwischen Massenkultur und Individualität, Freiheit und Begrenzung, Perfektion und Versehrtheit. Sie formen daraus drei Bildwelten, jede für sich schlüssig und jede im Kontakt mit den anderen – ein emotional und intellektuell aufregender Kommentar in der Stern-Wywiol Galerie zum 21. Jahrhundert als dem Zeitalter der Städte.

Maike Gräf schöpft aus großstädtischen Kunstformen wie Comic-Strip, Manga und Graffiti und verhandelt die klassischen Themen Leben, Liebe und Tod.

Thomas Putze kombiniert klassisch aus dem Holz geschnittene Holzfiguren mit Weggeworfenem und Unbrauchbarem und reflektiert gesellschaftliche Fragen wie Individualität, Konsum und Lebenssinn.

Detlef Waschkau erzählt in seinen farbigen Holzreliefs von der permanenten Transformation der Großstädte und erzeugt mit der Verbindung von strengem Rasterplan und Schnappschuss-Perspektive inhaltliche und formale Spannung.

What characterises an artist and what are the differences in their artistic products, apart from the different themes and materials they deal with?

In my opinion, it is above all the gaze. Art always makes us realise a fundamentally important aspect of our perception:

We can only see subjectively - and actually objectivity is impossible in all other sensory experiences too.

Leonardo da Vinci already noted that the human eye is only moderately well suited to seeing in purely technical terms. Today, we know from modern perceptual physiology that our brain plays a decisive role in the visual process. Our brain constantly compares the information coming in through the eye with previously stored and, above all, evaluated perceptual experiences. This is then what we think we see. Perhaps you are familiar with this when you are travelling and see a place for the first time, completely unprepared and without any previous knowledge. Then we are completely captivated, euphoric, feeling somehow new and young. Unfortunately, such moments are rare in life. But there is a remedy - art!

On the theme of SEX.CITY.LIFE, we present the work of three artists who have a lot in common. Maike Gräf, Thomas Putze and Detlef Waschkau all work figuratively. They work with wood as their basic material. And they work in the third dimension. Their theme is modern man with all his flights of fancy, limitations and dreams. The results of their work are very different. This is due in particular to the way they look at the same subject, which perceives it from completely different angles and arrives at completely different judgements.


Maike Gräf

Maike Gräf's view of the world is one that perceives the big picture. In the triad of her themes of life-love-death, she is interested in that which never changes and yet always bears new traits. Her figures stand above everyday life, they have a mythical dimension, indeed they are often to be understood as allegories. The artist often refers to canonical works of art history and uses them to address contemporary issues.
For example, "Venus" refers to the painting "Birth of Venus" by Botticelli, which in turn refers to a famous antique sculpture. Both the ancient and the Renaissance Venus are examples of the Venus pudica, the prudish Venus. Maike Gräf's Venus adopts the classical pose, but uses her hands very actively. She knows what is good for her and she does it. She is approachable, friendly, self-confident, neither lascivious nor shameless and does not want to hide. Venus has historically symbolised beauty and spiritual love. In Maike Gräf's work, she is also a symbol of female love (and of herself, as a prerequisite for loving others)

In formal terms, Maike Gräf's art is decidedly metropolitan. It refers quite naturally to manga, comics, graffiti, expressionism, cubism, is understood in Europe as well as in Asia, America, Europe - her works are simultaneously classical and ancient.


Thomas Putze

His focus is on the neglected details of our world, the peripheral, the discarded, the useless. And so he is much more frugal in his choice of materials than Maike Gräf. He doesn't need half a tree trunk, he makes art out of everything. Seen in this light, Thomas Putze is definitely an artist of the city, because the most diverse rubbish can be found here. He appropriates the world from a humble perspective, if you will. His love is for those who have to get by in life, the fighters and the inventive - his theme is man as a social being. It is always about interaction, about the relationship between people (see "Recipients") who have to share a limited space (CITY)
"24 hours... in the life of a customer" can be understood as the different identities that individuals have when they roam through our huge world of goods and wonders as consumers. And, let's not forget, the marvellous "snow leopard" that elicits a smile from every man and, above all, every woman: he wants attention, wants to show what he has to offer in the battle of the sexes. He always gives his all in life, never spares himself and yet only wants what everyone wants, LOVE

Maike Gräf's gaze is focussed on the general, the super-personal, the symbolic. Thomas Putze searches for the expression of the big picture in the small details. And Detlef Waschkau?


Detlef Waschkau

He is both a sculptor and a painter. Born in Hanover in 1961, he has lived there since studying art in Berlin and regularly travels extensively.

He wanders through the big cities and megacities of the world with his camera at the ready, allowing himself to be flooded by the impressions on the streets. His gaze seeks out the typical features of a city as well as the extraordinary. He rarely focuses on one detail and always seems to perceive everything at the same time, the large structures as well as the shopping bag of the woman in front of him on the zebra crossing. At home in his studio, he sifts through vast quantities of photos and finds the images that come closest to his intention. Then the work on the relief begins:

1. he applies an abstract coloured painting to the smooth wooden panel with a brush as if it were a canvas - in an intuitive gesture or already hinting at the later image structure.
2 Then he sketchily lays the drawing of the picture over it.
3. he lays a vertical grid over the whole, wide or narrow, calm or moving, regular or loosely rhythmic
4. he knocks out a field with the chisel and leaves it standing
5. the other fields are developed, colour is used repeatedly, which is partially removed again in the next step, some fields also remain in their original state
6. the working area becomes smaller and smaller until the painting is finally put to the test once again as a whole and is completed at some point

The interesting thing about Detlef Waschkau's street scenes is that they are so interesting. After all, they don't show any spectacular views, they are neither exotic nor unusual. They speak to us directly because they show a very common view - that of the snapshot, taken en passant, at a height of around 1.75 metres. We are right in the middle of the action, because we know this perception, our brain has memorised it and it connects with the work of art in front of us and makes us actors in the street scenes depicted.

DW breaks this learnt experience by showing us not a photograph but a multi-layered, gridded relief. He interweaves different spatial levels with each other, placing filigree structures next to abstract colour gestures. The first intuitive brushstroke is on an equal footing with the exact photographic image. And that is what is so fascinating, so exciting about these works. We can sense that all levels of perception are equally important, that they exist simultaneously.

In front of these works, you can feel the fascination of the city as a living space. We sense the diversity of impressions and the energy of the people that unfolds against the backdrop of the built environment. The strict grid of the pictures reflects the narrowness of the city. At the same time, the grid enables this wide formal range of artistic means, this juxtaposition of pure emotion and technical necessity. Freedom and limitation, individuality and mass, creative cluster and devouring juggernaut - all this is what the city means, all this is what makes up our lives here.

Conclusion: There is a saying in the Philippines: the more truths there are, the better. There is no one truth. As a matter of principle, we should distrust the proclaimers of one truth, consider other truths and draw our own conclusions. Art exemplifies this principle, and that is why it is so enormously important for us.


Dr Kathrin Reeckmann