Nomads Sqaure 04-2 Print

THE NOMADS SQUARE – a series of contemporary paintings The conceptual and non-representational series The Nomads Square invites you to an ongoing aesthetic surprise. As in other of his series, the artist prefers a given format (30 x 30 cm) and uses oil paint that is applied to the canvas in massive layers using a spatula or other tools. New work is created every day without having to follow a preconceived “protocol”. In this way, individual images seem to diverge in development, but others claim spontaneous eruptions to be a singular existence. There is a constant progression that is condensing, digging, experimenting and dissolving. The way of working is similar to that of a calligrapher. In quick succession, work steps and decisions are made intuitively, as well as completely rejected and newly created. The tendency of virtuosity in the sense of Asian mastery mixes with the lifestyle of the nomads of Mongolia. The artist has lived and experienced nomadic culture in numerous trips and projects in the Mongolian steppe. Just as nomads do not actually travel to “foreign” land, but travel on “their” earth, with which they feel connected, so the canvas here offers an entrance to an infinite variation of introspection of the smallest perceived units. Nomadic life endures. It moves on and leaves what is. Many terms used today such as holism, sustainability, species-appropriate husbandry, climate-friendly management of waste prevention etc. are not news in the nomadic view but natural life parameters. Here the artist takes the canvas as an example of a changing location. Similar to the mandala "the infinite city", which is visualized as a perfect square arrangement and symbol of the world by the meditator above the head, the artist uses the canvas as a daily mirror to understand the world. “Basically I would consider myself as a conceptual artist, and by this I follow researching ideas of understanding the contemporary issues of he "world" by transforming visual statements. In this work series Nomads Square serves as a flight path and it’s aeronautical checkpoint by facing the infinite variety of events and things that affect us every moment, to summarize and to let go again. I would call the point of origin to that series a diverse Multidisciplinary, that reaches back to the origin of expression.” (Marc Schmitz in conversation with R. Elliot 2019) The artist breaks free from convention and appropriates some of the most advanced technical components from the latest “revolution” in arts. With these new transformational enabling tools in painting, along with the traditional techniques from art, science, philosophy, poetry and industries, the artist articulates and facilitates his deeply personal exploration into the fundamental questions of human condition. And during that process, he erases the gaps between modernity and tradition, reality and unreality, life and substance, between individuals, and even the essential difference between human and other forms of life. Marc`s painting practice may contribute to this sensitivity to the “unexpected” state, which makes him often stop before the changes of daily things and rethink the habits and laws in his own consciousness and behavior. Together with other similar events, “accident” promotes his repeated examination of the substance and functionality of painting materials, and also makes him interact with a certain painting tradition. All the time, Marc likes to find the traces of painting from real life. Following this path, he tried to combine freely and “accidentally” these simple structures and materials in an atypical way, and treat the material properties from a daily perspective, emphasizing the function and potential carried by the material itself, or spread, or reinforce, or wrap, or tighten, so that the material in the surface coating between the colors would generate a fluid and unfinished state. Gradually, he realized that only after the disintegration of the whole nature in the traditional sense of painting, the dialogue between parts would be liberated, making it possible to produce new wholeness and new relations. The single works in the series The Nomads Square are given in chronological order numerically with the number of week and sequence number (e.g. 6_14). All paintings are oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm courtesy Marc Schmitz 2020.