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until 07.03. | #4554ARTatBerlin | Galerie EIGEN + ART Berlin shows from 23 January 2025 the exhibition Der Kiosk – Die Insel by the artist Titus Schade .
There is a fire burning. In Titus Schade’s remote, gloomy, small town yet wide landscapes, fire and conflagrations light up the scenic darkness. Ignited by the powerful violet lightning strike as a sign of supernatural power, supposedly biblical and ancient ways of reception come up as associations around open res, like references to the Gospel of Matthew or mythological narratives about the Olympian ruler Zeus, with connections to the present.
In the interaction of the depressing atmospheric scenes with certain ambiguous elements within them, the open fire appears dystopian. Titus Schade places a visual element in his paintings, which he refers to as a pyre, as part of his multifaceted kiosk offering of different and recurring motifs. Compositions with three or four fires and flames set in front of structures, in garages, and on window sills of abandoned houses demonstrate the relevance of the motif. As an attribute in the history of art, the pyre is dedicated to saints who died by fire, and thus conveys a martyrical reading. Destruction, deconstruction, and vandalism become relevant themes in Schade’s landscapes. Instead of figures of saints, however, he uses profane iconographic image quotations from busts of Karl Marx to portraits reminiscent of El Greco on walls of houses. The painter composes these with candle flames of virtuous connotations, for example, which return as graffiti on the walls or in the windows of residential buildings that have apparently only just been abandoned. Conceived as an image within an image, the portraits and illusionistically composed, regionalist-appearing architectures convey less an element of sublimity than the absence of human presence and the illusion of an ideal world.
Where are the people? How are civilization and society constituted? Which actions and social structures frame and fuel the fires? Is a contemporary political uprising flaring up beneath the seemingly new objectivity surface? And are there (art) historical references to this?
Schade offers stylistic, thematic, and iconographic traditions and narratives while questioning them at the same time. In the glitch-like fragmentation of visual elements, established ways of seeing and worlds of ideas are undermined. In place of a familiar and coherent narrative, Titus Schade uses ambiguous, highly atmospheric, dark imagery. In them, Eurocentric art-historical references from the early modern period to the present are manifested. References to Arnold Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead of the late 19th century in the motif and exhibition title, or the exaggerated, otherworldly political landscapes of Otto Dix, which were created between 1933 and 1945, left image-forming traces of artistic reception. The connection to art-historical influences and classical genres is also evident in the burning red sky scenarios that characterize Schade’s painterly and expansive wind cloud landscapes. With reference to impressionistic and even naturalistic forms of design, the motif of the immanent width of the horizon and the impasto painting forms a counterpart to the detailed architectural landscapes.
Categorized as a political landscape, Titus Schade introduces the viewer to his painterly scenographies, uses the doubt of trompe-l’œil as support, but ultimately leaves us in the dark with socially relevant questions about facets of gloom, broken icons, and levels of meaning of regionalisms. In this respect, Der Kiosk – Die Insel is an invitation to contemplate a variety of offerings.
Vernissage: Thursday, 23 January, 5 – 8 pm
Exhibition dates: Thursday, 23 January – Friday, 07 March 2025
Zur Galerie
Image caption: Der Flachbau, Acryl auf Leinwand, 50 x 80 cm, 2024, Foto: Uwe Walter, Berlin.
Exhibition Titus Schade – Galerie EIGEN + ART | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Ausstellungen Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin
