Lot 658 D

For the production of the series Basic Research (1988-1993), Isa Genzken uses the frottage technique, a procedure that was handed down. The primed canvas is spread out on the floor of the studio and worked on with the squeegee. During this process, the canvas takes on the imprint of the floor with its structures, uneveness and remaining production traces of the studio.
It is not until later that the picture carrier is mounted, which is why the paint coat bleeds over the picture's edges. This results in a monochrome picture surface evoking opposing associations due to its structure. Although at first they look like microscopic analyses of tissue structure, viewed from a new perspective, they seem like the macroscopic satellite images of a moonscape.
Basic research thus characterises fundamental aspects in Isa Genzken's oeuvre and addresses the relation between cast and imprint, as in the case of the Weltempfänger paintings. With this form of visualisation, she refers to the space of her creativity. Even the tiniest remaining traces are consciously imprinted onto the canvas. In doing so, she does not merely create a reproduction of the actual space but rather transforms the “architecture as a reference point of her own work, of the architecturally tangible existing context in which she operates, […] in which a reproduction transforms to a 'work of art'. It is not what she creates from within that is emphasized. Accordingly, the frottage, the imprint, is the appropriate means to implement this technically. Due to this procedure, Genzken rules out a whole range of creative scope right from the start. On the contrary, the process denotes that the artist can only influence the outcome of the painting to a very limited extent, i.e. by purposefully applying something to the floor. Ultimately, however, she surrenders to the prevailing conditions and to the present architectonic situation so that […] her painting develops disconnected from her influence, “automatically”, so to speak. (Christiane M. Schneider, Basic Research, in: Kasper König u.a. (ed.), Isa Genzken, Sesam, öffne dich!, exhib.cat. Museum Ludwig, Köln, und Whitechapel Gallery, London 2009, p.68).