Melanie Grimm

ER RIEF, DASS MAN LICHT NUR MIT LICHT BEGEGNEN KÖNNE

Standing on top of the mountain, we let our eyes wander over the landscape and yet can hardly grasp what we must have had in mind already on the way. Our gaze was distracted, we were searching, we were inspired. Step by step we conquered, concentrated and yet dreamy, and suddenly the panorama opens up in full expanse - right at the top.

Similarly, Christof John's paintings invite us to let our gaze wander in them, to immerse ourselves in abstract arrangements. The basic framework of his works are everyday observations that provide impulses, whether for later compositions or colour interactions. The artist works with acrylic and oil paint mostly on wood, the format is determined by the concrete project.

Colour, form, construction, expressiveness, fragmentation, intensification, abrasion, glazing, layering from layer to layer, pencil drawing, overpainting: everything leaves traces. Christof John makes decisions during the painting process in which he apparently lets the viewer participate. The visibility of the processual is an important component of his works, which are nevertheless determined by precise painterly settings. Delicate, translucent or covering, powerful layers of paint, fine or rough structures behind which something appears or hides itself - they guide the gaze into the depths in which new spaces open up.

Although a geometric formal language dominates Christof John's paintings, an echo of representationalism can sometimes be discovered. In his very own way, the artist even grants real images their place alongside gestural painting, such as plant structures that emerge schematically in the clearly constructed pictorial space. Experiences or snapshots from everyday life can not only be the occasion for compositions, in some works they also find their way into the titles {Ohne Titel (Faro), 2019, Acryl auf MDF}. Not only classical means, but also fabric or wood can become painting material.

Corrections and breaks, shifts and blurs, sharpness and blurriness: Again and again parts are polished, newly assembled, superimposed. For Christof John, taking away and removing is at the same time an additive process. Everything is possible at any point. A close look is indispensable, not only for the painter - but also for the viewer.