Watercolors require gentle treatment, too

2010-05-25

FRITSCH exhibits works of the artist Edwin Michel in the FTC in Kitzingen

In the world of baking, the FRITSCH Technology Center has become a home for the modern philosophy of gentle dough treatment. In the meantime, however, it appears to be well on its way to becoming a respectable home to the arts as well.
Edwin Michel is now the third painter in a row to exhibit his works in the rooms of the Markt Einersheim bakery systems manufacturer. In his laudation at the opening of the exhibition, Dr. Markus Kuhn emphasized the idea that Edwin Michel, in order to produce such high-quality works of art consistently, must be able to rely on certain basic conditions.
For example, the wet-on-wet painting technique -- one of the artist's favorite -- requires that the color be applied to thoroughly moistened paper. Moreover, Edwin Michel is a landscape painter who does a great deal of his work out of doors, and must, therefore, be careful to protect his paintings from sudden changes in the weather and other whims of nature. Edwin Michel's solution to this problem is certainly worth mentioning: the artist has removed the passenger seat from a spacious station wagon and installed an easel construction in its place. So now he can safely implement his wet-on-wet technique "outdoors" with no worry that the wind may dry the paper prematurely or that a rainshower might spoil his efforts with a bit too much moisture.
Michel, born in Acholhausen by Würzburg in 1923, received his education at art institutes in Nuremberg and Berlin. In the latter city, he was a master student of Professor Kraus. Early on and after long consideration, the painter decided in favor of pursuing excellence in his chosen technique -- and this despite (or was it because of?) the misgivings shared by most of his painter colleagues about the difficulty of controlling the color. But it is precisely here that a painter can best show that he or she is a master of color -- not to mention the fact that the colors are more resistant than varnished watercolors.
It is exciting to see how Michel combines in his landscapes the two diametrically opposed perspectives represented by his art academies, holding them in taut suspension. The naturalistic, expressionistic tone is an echo from the painter's beginnings in Nuremberg; the abstraction in his work points back to his turbulent years in Berlin.
Of course, as a result of the balance between these two tendencies that the painter long ago achieved, Michel can now boast his very own form and tone. He is a master at arranging intensive fields of color next to and in front of and behind one another to create the illusion of spatial depth.
Along with the landscape paintings, Michel has included a few select works that attest to the painters ability -- also in his portraits -- to fulfill what could be considered to be the main task of painting: leaving out what is not absolutely necessary, and carefully working out what is essential to the painter's eye.
The works of Edwin Michel will be shown in the FTC Kitzingen until November 2010.