Further reading
> INTEGRAL, The Ambient Paintings of Bruno Kurz
by Donald Brackett, catalogue of solo exhibition, pub. Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto 2017.
ISBN 978-1-927447-26-0, National Library of Canada.
TRANSFIGURED
The High Bright Night of Bruno Kurz
Catalogue of solo exhibition, pub. Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto 2014
ISBN 978-1-927447-14-7, National Library of Canada
Bruno Kurz – Translucent Horizons
Exhibition catalogue, pub. Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto 2012
ISBN 978-1-927447-02-4, National Library of Canada
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 Bruno Kurz is a German painter. He primarily works on reflective surfaces such as metal, creating paintings of great luminosity and depth – expansive colour fields with vague allusions to landscape. They do not reference an actual place any more but depict moods and atmospheres, floating between stillness and energetic dynamism. Emphatically horizontal lines and areas can visually expand beyond the frameless margins of the picture into infinity, and, in conjunction with vertical colour gradients, form a Perpetuum mobile, effecting a balance of opposite movements – to the point of apparent stillness. In addition to his strict formal aesthetics, Kurz also examines the physical qualities of his chosen materials. The painter experiments with diverse dyes and paints, merges synthetic elements, pigments, inks, water colour, acrylic and oil paints or resins and fillers in unconventional combinations and layers of colour. But for Bruno Kurz, painting does not start with paint, but with the choice of the painting surface. He utilises very different materials such as wood, canvas, silk or paper. Over the last few years, the artist has increasingly used sheet metals; in his studio, he prepares and alters their surfaces with grinding machines. Thus, light and colour will later be differently absorbed and reflected. “There is no such thing as the right light for my paintings”, the painter points out. Every incidence of light, every change of the beholder's position effects a new situation, new hues and colour fields emerge – his work appears to change constantly. Yet it radiates an unexpected calm, which is the result of optimised formal reduction and concentration. In Kurz' work, light does not visualise anything representational, but, beyond the interplay of colours, indicates the potential for inwardness and a capacity for knowledge. Thus the painter creates the conditions for meditation. His paintings offer vanishing points and spaces of tranquillity: “In our hectic world, stillness is the true spectacle.” (Galerist Cyprian Brenner) |
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