The old must Die
Kerstin Pfefferkorn
28. 02. – 18.04.2009
Opening
27 February 2009, 6 – 8 pm
“The artwork is only completed as it splinters into fragment, into fragments of the true world,
into the torso of a symbol.” (Walter Benjamin)
The solo show “The Old Must Die” by Kerstin Pfefferkorn is the first show of an artist of the
gallery in the new space of Antje Wachs Gallery in Charlottenstr. 3/Berlin-Mitte. Beside new
paintings, the show will present drawings of the artist for the first time as well as some samples
she uses as source material for her painterly work.
We see anonymous figures, fictitious characters and unknown individuals, all of which are
portrayed in a manner that blurs the distinction between historical reference, fading memory,
and the imagined past. The symbolism of these images reminds of the notion of history in
philosophical writing. Schlegel asserted that in symbols the infinite is brought to the surface.
For Coleridge, the symbol “is characterized by a translucence of the special in the individual
… above all by the translucence of the eternal through and in the temporal”. And for Benjamin,
historical investigation enables the representation of “fragments of the true world”.
Kerstin Pfefferkorn’s intimate portraits of unknown human beings reference vintage
photographs, children books, portraits from the 1930s and old medical journals as a way
to reflect on her teenage years in East Germany as well as on the life of her predecessors.
Especially, propaganda icons and their specific facial expressions make their way into the
painterly observation. What does the smile of the victor mean nowadays? The humanness
of the pose leaves the spectator in irritation and uncertainty.Pfefferkorn explores the
language of painting and the boundary between portraiture and abstraction.
Her small close-ups and cropped heads, painted in egg tempera on wood, examine ideas
like the architectural aspect of an expression and the anatomy of a gaze. Layer after layer,
she works on the translucence and at the same time intensity that reminds of Piero della
Francesca and Marlene Dumas.
The title of the exhibition “The Old Must Die” seems to neglect the recovery of history.
The past is indeed gone; it can be engaged through reference, which means an operation
different from and opposed to representation. Pfefferkorn appropriates the object of the
past and activates certain fragments of former life to transfer it to the present.
Kerstin Pfefferkorn, born 1973 in Karl-Marx-Stadt (GDR) lives and works in Leipzig (D).
From 1998-2005, she studied Painting at the Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst
in Leipzig in the classes of Prof. Dietrich Burger and Prof. Arno Rink, from 2005-2008
she was master student of Prof. Neo Rauch.
