A declaration of love Print

Collector’s Choice:Reinhard Stammer www.reinhard-stammer.de “The bold works of Reinhard Stammer seem to form a direct stream from his subconscious mind to the canvas surface, assaulting the viewer with the vinegar of turbulent agony and sweet recollections all at once. Many lifetimes of experience and exploration seem poured out into color, line and shape. Declarations made through textures and emerging shapes require from the viewer the willingness to quietly and slowly decode a multitude of symbols through contemplation, free association and complete immersion in the painterly surface.” Written by Janis Kirstein Art Historian Dr. Vöhringer has said: “Reinhard Stammer is, in the best sense of the word, an autodidact.” The term goes back to the philosophers, aphorisms, writers and poets of Lichtenberg. And it’s good that there are the self-taught in art, he continues and he calls as an example the painting customs officer Henri Rousseau. The well known art critic Uwe Lempelius has said in reference to the work of Mr Stammer, “The fact that art is studied, is no guarantee of the quality of the painted works of art. Only the way that you paint the art is the final guarantee. And this, he says distinguishes the difference between being an artist and being another kind of professional. There are no autodidactic doctors or lawyers, he adds. “But I know several artists without education who are members of the Federation of Artists. Just think of the naive customs officer Henri Rousseau whose naive art Picasso once discovered.” “Yes, now I have included Stammer with these big artists,” Lempelius says. “ Mr.Stammer has given rise to a whole series of paintings, where if the viewer discovered these works in a museum as an exhibit, he could not determine if the artist was an amateur.” Reinhard Stammer was born on 25/07/1952 in Glücksburg on the Baltic Sea. He says of painting : “The joy of painting, has been with me since I was in the cradle.” He finds it interesting that symbols found in his pictures from his early youth have re-emerged in his later works as well. He says that he studied life with all its ups and downs, with its light – and dark sides. “ I lived my life passionately and sometimes excessively. There was no apparent plan. At age 32, I founded the PARC-Verlag, www.parc.de .