The painter Simone Haack, who lives and works in Berlin, talks about the central message of her artistic work during her interview.
Le Sommeil, 2021, 90 x 100 cm, Oil on Cotton, Photo Lea Gryze
What makes your art special? Please describe the core theme and the central themes of your work.
In my drawings and paintings, I explore the image of the human being and I illuminate, above all, the themes of identity and individuality. My aim thereby is not to depict concrete people – portraits in the strict sense – but the development of timeless, suggestive-fictional likenesses that show a person in his physical and psychological existence – what I’d call “fictional portraits”.
Cherry Blossom Girl, 2019, 90 x 165 cm, Oil on Cotton, Photo Lea Gryze
I’m fascinated by the human as a being, with and in his surroundings, with his instincts, needs, emotions, and relationships – in relation to himself, to his body, to nutrition, to space, to clothing, to his fellow human beings, and also to animals. The animalistic aspect in humans, and the human aspect in animals. My painting thereby uses the means of realism, without thereby depicting “reality”.
Liebesperlen, 2021, 120 x 140 cm, Oil on Cotton, Photo Lea Gryze
I give the uncanny as much scope as the absurd, irony, and humor, because ambivalence in the pictorial expression is important to me.
“In the realm of emotions, the real is indistinguishable from the imaginary.” Andre Gide
Konspirative Sitzung, 2021, 80 x 120 cm, Oil on Cotton, Photo Lea Gryze
Introduce us to the work that, in your view, exemplifies or best embodies the message of your work.
They can be explored as sensual experiences; viewers need no additional information. I don’t want to stipulate; I want to enable the greatest possible freedom in reception. I’ve already indicated above what’s important to me. My picture “Four” (2013, 170 x 120 cm, oil on linen) puts a lot of that in a nutshell.
Vier, 2013, 170 x 120 cm, Oil on Cotton, Photo Lea Gryze
What is the aim of your art, your work, what is it supposed to achieve in the viewer?
To touch in some way, to get in contact with the viewer.
Translation: Mitch Cohen
THE DEED | DAS WERK is a complementary and separately presented part of THE INTERVIEW IN|DEEDS with Simone Haack.
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