January 2010  

Reflexes and Reflections

Logically the title of this book describes the artistic position of Gerd Lieder. On his pages a panorama of images unfolds revealing the artist sensitive view of his surroundings. The cosmos of his insight has become even more differentiated and broadened compared to the previous catalogues and publications. Once again Lieder presents himself as a thorough but never uncritical observer of his environment. This is influenced directly by his surroundings and his family who has become the subject of his works more than ever before and by the world and the worlds which he has experienced and artistically processed during his numerous travels. Burckhardt’s famous chapter “Die Entdeckung der Welt und des Menschen” („The Discovery of the World and the Human Being“) ¹ could be the leitmotif of Lieder’s works. “I travel through the world carrying different mirrors in my luggage and I arrange my reflections or I use what is there.” ² The artist is mesmerized by the speed of his time, by the vibrations of big cities like New York or Dubai and their endless changes, which he records in a transient reflection that he slowly reveals in his pictures.

“Gegensätze und Widersprüche, das ist unsere Harmonie” (“opposites and contradictions, this is our harmony”) ³ is the pro-cess coined by Kandinsky, where the artist condenses diverging appearances, impressions, and aspects into his work of art. From antagonisms like near and far, inside and outside, traditional and modern Lieder develops new structures of order which enable us to experience his work as unity in variety ⁴. Thereby working with mirrors is a substantial moment of creation, as

· the mirror as a traditional speculum mundi sums up a picture of the world like in the scholastic philosophy for the first time.
· the distorted mirror submits a picture of the world according to the artist’s conception of the world; Thus the mimetic reflection created through the mirror is followed by the reflected creation of the artist Gerd Lieder.
· the artist is never bound to the reflected picture, instead the mirror is subjected to the intentions of the artist.

“I collect and record reflections from multifaceted facilities, facets and examples and I make a spontaneous selection.” ⁵ Gerd Lieder has devotedly worked with mirrors for years, and has had numerous expositions and has been published in two prestigious catalogues. Lieder uses the mirror similar to a scout who differentiates and intensifies his perception with the use of an optical instrument. Like a research project Gerd Lieder uses precise questions in his conception and realization of his works resulting in different categories. The formulation of these questions Lieder often substantiates through his titles, which then like comments or interpretation facilities extend the pure pictorial statement (e. g. “Changing Lanes” or “Supernova”).

Apart from themes from the very private life of the artist (wife and daughter in diverse variations and transformations) architecture is becoming a major theme in his work. For the artist it is obvious: here is the ideal facility to combine tradition and progress as well as to confront them. The works “Dresdens Seele” (”The Soul of Dresden”) and “Gehry 2” impressively illustrate this. Between the static of the architectural structures and the dynamics of their refraction - first through the mirror then in the ”REFLECTION PICTURE” - Gerd Lieder develops an area of conflict which is on display in his brilliant painting style. Like only a few artists of his time Lieder is able to freeze “distortions which symbolize a fast-moving, pulsating, never still standing time” ⁶ in a perfected, quasi masterly technique without fixing the causes of movement. In this context Lieder’s art is described by the basic positions of Heraklit which are often (falsely) explained by the formula panta rhei. But in fact Heraklit compares the frequent changes of life and experience to a river ⁷ and thus he meets the sensibilities of the artist who describes the constant change in his surroundings through his reflections. This book impressively illustrates the transformations and metamorphoses of people, landscapes and architectures. Even the sequence of the reproductions in this catalogue is determined by Lieder’s imagination of floating, the constant renewal of the consistent. In the first reproduction “Yellow Cab” he shows the process of dissipation in the bright light whereas the end of the catalogue “Streiflichter” (”Highlights”) records night visions of refracted lights in an urban scene.

Just as in the “Ulysses” by James Joyce the story takes place in a day, Gerd Lieder arranges the pictures in his catalogue in a similar way. The macrocosms of the world and of humanity are reflected in the microcosms of Gerd Lieder’s art in a double sense. Lieder’s scope of technique illustrates variations and changes in his art and his signature has gained more subjectivity. In addition to his accomplished technique the use of spatula and palette knife give the surface of the single paintings another relief and clear haptic qualities (”Supernova”, ”Diva”, ”View of Light”, ”Scyscraper”). The viewer notices these elevations on the surface as perceptible vibrations and therefore feels the fluctuating moment not only spiritually in the theme but also in the material used for the picture.

It should be noted that an artist like Gerd Lieder always clearly addresses his audience, he never withholds information instead he always explains himself. He wishes to include the viewer into his perspective, “to enable us to look through his eyes” ⁸. This distinction separates him from other modern artists of all disciplines, who love the idea of being difficult or impossible to understand. Inspired by Marcel Proust Lieder named his first two catalogues “Reflection of Worlds - Worlds of Reflections” thereby reflecting his artistic credo. Thus the only true journey is not the one into other countries but the one into other realities. Look upon the world another way, see the many worlds we live in.

Jost Funke, Professor for Visual Arts and Art History, Bremen

¹ Jacob Burckhardt, ”Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien”, Bd.II, Leipzig 1908
² Gerd Lieder conversing with the author on May 15th, 2006
³ Wassily Kandinsky “Über das Geistige der Kunst”, Neuilly-sur-Seine 1952, p. 109
⁴ Odo Marquard, “Einheit in Vielheit”, Hamburg 1987
⁵ Gerd Lieder in given locations
⁶ Gerd Lieder in given locations
⁷ ”In dieselben Flüsse steigen wir und steigen wir nicht, wir sind und wir sind nicht.“
(We enter he same rivers and we do not, we are and we are not.)
Herakleitos of Ephesos quoted: “Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker” by Hermann Diel, Hamburg 1975
⁸ Arthur Schopenhauer, lectures chapter 7, ”Vom Zweck des Kunstwerks”, Munich 1985