Berliner Blätter, 1976–1984
Etchings and lithographs, portfolio edition, 15 copies
The Berliner Blätter mark a decisive phase in his work. They represent a transition from the personal portraits and surreal fantasies of his early years to a more universal, socially critical visual language.
The sheets are populated by grotesque faces, hybridized bodies, figures in armor, anatomical set pieces, and machine-like prostheses. In this world, humans and mechanics, intimacy and power, caricature and allegory encounter each other. The grotesque exaggeration is not only a means of satire, but also a method of remembering: faces and bodies store the signs of their time.
Thus, the “Berlin Sheets” already appear as precursors to the later concept of COLLECTIVE MEMORY. What appears here in the medium of printmaking as an individual mask, a politically charged grimace, or an allegorical figure is further developed in the current works: the face as a place of collective memory that transcends biography and carries history within itself.
Thus, the Berliner Blätter prove to be not only an independent, masterful series, but also a link between the biographical introspection of the early years and current reflections on the form of memory in art.
Dr. Pelle Solus
Dr.Pelle Solus