SIGN OF O Print

SIGN OF O refers to the erotic novel "Story of O" (original title: Histoire d’O) by Pauline Réage - a pseudonym of the French editor and author Anne Cécile Desclos / Dominique Aury - from 1954, which was considered a scandal book in its time. In was painted using only coffee- and curry-powder with water on paper. ______ The painting is part of the artist's extensive 'Lockdown-Cycle' - a large number of mostly abstract pictures that Kainhofer painted in the New Zealand outback above Golden Bay. He had retreated there for several months in early 2020 to wait out what he called 'Corona-madness', which had surprised him on a trip around the world. The decelerated and self-reflected life led to a burst of creativity from which over 20 works emerged. ______ Since Kainhofer had to work without the materials from his Munich studio during this time, these paintings were almost exclusively created using natural colors, which he made from coffee-, curry- and chilli-powder or other materials he could buy at supermarkets (the only stores that were allowed to open during lockdown) ______ This makeshift led to a new, grainy surface-structure of the pictures and the reduced colour spectrum gave rise to completely new ideas and facets of his style.