ULF PUDER
2012-10-22His masterly paintings of architectural structures are devoid of human life and hover between abstraction and representation. Puder places chaos and quietude side by side. Symbols of human creation, industrialization and desolation are rendered in extreme perspectives, in front of dimly hued skies. Puder’s scenes induce a sense of calm disorder, or animated stillness, perplexing and haunting as they appear to the beholder.
A member of the Neue Leipziger Schule, Puder gained international acclaim for adding an experimental surrealism to East-German Neo-Realism. In this large-scale work, architectural modules are about to collapse, alluding to turmoil and despair in society. Motif and title both set the link to the iconic The Raft of the Medusa by French painter Théodore Géricault, which depicts the conversion from men into cannibals due to the basic human instinct to survive. Puder’s works pose questions to our society and its relationship with the past.
Opposite – Italienische Landschaft mit Bruecke, 2012
Exhibition runs through to November 11th, 2012
Marc Straus
299 Grand Street
New York
NY
10002
