Art Exhibition
Reinventing the Portrait
I portray people in what they do. A recurring movement, a reflex, a way of dealing with resistance. I call it a move: the way someone moves through life. Ten portraits capture these beauties.
Why I make art
What remains of Bärbel?
At the funeral of my friend Bärbel, someone said she was now in the clouds, in the grass. My daughter Alma objected: “I don’t see Bärbel there.”
But where can we see Bärbel, now that she is dead?
Bärbel had a lot of hardship in her life.
She didn’t want to dig into it, she would rather take care of what was alive.
That’s how I always saw her from my window, in the garden.
The flower doesn’t care about the dirt.
At Bärbel’s funeral, I would have liked to draw a picture of her, but I couldn’t find the words.
Six, seven months later, an image of her came to me: a little golden boat.
For her, living meant staying afloat.
I named this move: Protective Layer.
It teaches me: to navigate and protect my little life.
“Oh, Philipp,” you would have said, laughing, “the things you do.”
But it’s us, Bärbel.
The sea has always been a passage.
How a work of art is made
Moves and material
Seeing a move and uncovering it takes time. I work on a move until I have it. And it has me. If it stays, I give it a form, create it anew. And put it in my small collection of human resources.
Berlin, New York
Hanging it high
My grandmother once rescued a watercolour I had painted as a child. She picked it up off the floor, framed it and hung it on the wall. I call this move Elevation.
Art needs precisely this gesture: Look, this matters.
Next stop New York.
Human Resources: A Private Collection
Works
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