【Shanghai·The Bund】 ‘ Foreshadow’ ──Ruprecht von Kaufmann / Susanne Kühn 2023.5.20- 7.30

Exhibition

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Installation

Opening Day

n May 2023, Bluerider ART Shanghai launches "Foreshadowing" ── Ruprecht von Kaufmann and Susanne Kühn's two-person exhibition. The two German artists represented by Bluerider ART: Ruprecht von Kaufmann and Susanne Kühn, both of whom have long focused on Figurative Art. Language explores the subconscious state of human beings, as well as the deep psychology and emotions. Through the foreshadowing as suggested in theater drama, it leads the viewers to follow the clues embedded in the paintings, and gradually penetrate into the "surreal dreamland" constructed by the artist, or into subjects such as the relationship between human beings and the natural environment, the exploration of the self and the construction of identity.

Ruprecht von Kaufmann (b.1974, Germany) was educated at the Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CA., As Dr Brigitte Hausmann, curator for the Art Program of the City of Berlin has written in her introduction to Leben zwischen den Stuhlen (Distanz, 2021), Von Kaufmann ‘ranks among the important contemporary positions in figurative painting’. His forceful and emotional paintings are unsettling and purposefully so, since Von Kaufmann places great emphasis on storytelling, resulting in his figurative work being full of dark humor as well as dense melancholy. In his artworks, he captures moments that are deeply personal while also hinting at a universal experience.

Ruprecht von Kaufmann’s figurative paintings are awash in dramatic lighting and deep tonal palettes, resulting in expressionistic, cinematic works. His melancholic canvases are imbued with mysterious, absurdist narrative details, featuring lonely travelers, ghostlike circus scenes, and theatrical tableaux full of enigmatic motifs and details. Kaufmann frequently leaves his subjects faceless and open to interpretation. He has exhibited in New York, London, Berlin, Prague, Hamburg, Milan, and Seattle. Kaufmann’s works are in the collections of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Deutsche Bundestag Art Collection, the Hort Family Collection, and the Uziyel Family Collection.

The media created by Susanne Kühn (b.1969, Germany) ranges from acrylic paint, composite media, printmaking, and ceramics. In the works of Kühn, you can see natural depictions such as mountains, moonlight, dead wood, animals, etc., cleverly combining historical elements, sometimes whimsical, sometimes realistic. In Kühn's paintings, young women are mostly the visual focus, moving in multi-layered and complicated spaces, specially arranged compositions and precise details depict objects and objects in space to create a delicate balance, surreal scenes , just like the fluid and changing relationship in contemporary stage plays. Man-made spaces are also at the heart of Kühn's work, and she often references the composition of Renaissance art, such as those of painters Jan van Eyck or Albrecht Durer, Create the precise illusion of reality at the level of space, atmosphere and light. From classical to contemporary, Kühn's works give the viewer the illusion of reality through elements of different time and space.

Works by Susanne Kühn can be found in important collections in Germany and abroad, such as the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden, the Museum für Neue Kunst in Freiburg, the Zabludowicz Art Trust in London, the Schwartz Art Collection of Harvard University, the Alison and Peter W. Klein Collection, the UBS Art Collection, and the Deutsche Bundesbank Collection.

The composition of classical works of art has always been the reference target of many artists when creating, such as the classic works of the painter Jan van Eyck, often used as the hierarchical relationship of other artists in the interweaving of characters, objects, spaces, and buildings An important reference on the subject, the perspectives of the depicted objects and the metaphors behind them are often topics that art research loves to explore. Dadaism, which lasted to the last century, is a response to the artistic trend emanating from war, new media and machine culture. Dada artists prefer randomness, spontaneity, and resistance to logic and order, and try a variety of methods: Paste, take photos, and collect daily life materials on the canvas, exploring and responding to the topic of how art is made and viewed without limiting the media. Artist Susanne Kühn uses the compositional model in European paintings to connect historical moments and the natural environment around her, depicting the objects as the mediator between life and nature. It is also the parallel of the time section, which extends to the female perspective of creation. Compared with the series of portraits of historical figures by artist Cindy Sherman, it reverses the passive gaze of women in classical historical works to criticize and generate initiative. Kuhn Kühn has gradually increased from the female character who appeared alone in the center of the picture in the early days to the images of friends around him, and even the artist himself, surrounding the contemporary objects of interest, showing gradually clear artistic mastery.

'Foreshadow' presents how artists care of contemporary experience through figures, still lifes, landscapes, architectures and the internet culture, expressing the relationship between the composition of classical painting in art history and the experience in contemporary life. With the elements of film and literature, composition, light, color, cropping are inspirations for Kaufmann’s personal expression. In a mysterious magical unrealistic sense, he invites viewers to think about the contradictions and complexity of human experience. Kühn interweaves surrealism, collage, and cultural codes of various time and space. In the narration of her painting, she creates a complex of abundant vitality, integrating the world of contemporary experience on the internet, inviting the viewers to communicate from the past, through present, and to the future.

‘Foreshadow’ ──Ruprecht von Kaufmann / Susanne Kühn Group exhibition
Rollover:2023.5.20-7.30
Bluerider ART Shanghai·The Bund
Tue. -Sun. 10am-7pm
133 Sichuan Middle Rd., Huangpu Dist., Shanghai

Artists and Works

Ruprecht von Kaufmann(Germany,b. 1974）

Ruprecht von Kaufmann (b.1974, Germany) was educated at the Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CA., As Dr Brigitte Hausmann, curator for the Art Program of the City of Berlin has written in her introduction to Leben zwischen den Stuhlen (Distanz, 2021), Von Kaufmann ‘ranks among the important contemporary positions in figurative painting’. His forceful and emotional paintings are unsettling and purposefully so, since Von Kaufmann places great emphasis on storytelling, resulting in his figurative work being full of dark humor as well as dense melancholy. In his artworks, he captures moments that are deeply personal while also hinting at a universal experience.

2019  Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany

2019  `Inside the Outside´, UN Headquarters, New York

2018  `Die Evakuierung des Himmels´, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Erfurt

2019  “The three princes of serendip” Kunstsammlung Neubrandenburg

2017, Ecce Creatura Groupshow, Kallmann Museum, Ismaning

Ruprecht von Kaufmann’s figurative paintings are awash in dramatic lighting and deep tonal palettes, resulting in expressionistic, cinematic works. His melancholic canvases are imbued with mysterious, absurdist narrative details, featuring lonely travelers, ghostlike circus scenes, and theatrical tableaux full of enigmatic motifs and details. Kaufmann frequently leaves his subjects faceless and open to interpretation. He has exhibited in New York, London, Berlin, Prague, Hamburg, Milan, and Seattle. Kaufmann’s works are in the collections of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Deutsche Bundestag Art Collection, the Hort Family Collection, and the Uziyel Family Collection.

Susanne Kühn（Germany, b.1969）

The media created by Susanne Kühn (b.1969, Germany) ranges from acrylic paint, composite media, printmaking, and ceramics. In the works of Kühn, you can see natural depictions such as mountains, moonlight, dead wood, animals, etc., cleverly combining historical elements, sometimes whimsical, sometimes realistic. In Kühn's paintings, young women are mostly the visual focus, moving in multi-layered and complicated spaces, specially arranged compositions and precise details depict objects and objects in space to create a delicate balance, surreal scenes , just like the fluid and changing relationship in contemporary stage plays. Man-made spaces are also at the heart of Kühn's work, and she often references the composition of Renaissance art, such as those of painters Jan van Eyck or Albrecht Durer, Create the precise illusion of reality at the level of space, atmosphere and light. From classical to contemporary, Kühn's works give the viewer the illusion of reality through elements of different time and space.

2022 “Profliferation – Vasa, Auginella & other sprouts”, Galerie für Gegenwartskunst, Ewerk Freiburg

2021 kunstmuseum celle, Germany

2021 Museum fur Neue Kunst Freiburg

2008 Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, USA

2019 House for a Painting, FRAC Alsace, France

Works by Susanne Kühn can be found in important collections in Germany and abroad, such as the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden, the Museum für Neue Kunst in Freiburg, the Zabludowicz Art Trust in London, the Schwartz Art Collection of Harvard University, the Alison and Peter W. Klein Collection, the UBS Art Collection, and the Deutsche Bundesbank Collection.