Jonas Burgert
Pulslauf
2009
Oil on canvas. 100 x 120 cm. Signed, dated, and titled '-Pulslauf- 2009 J Burgert' verso on canvas.
The mystical tension in Pulslauf develops from the composition as well as the combination of the main themes. A still-life composition on a table top serves as the starting point of the painting. This is brought to life by the figure of a boy who appears in the foreground. The skull as a classic memento mori motif appears as an antithesis alongside the boy's vitality.
A huge averted body towering in a rigid pose in the background overshadows the composition.
The play with proportions so typical of Jonas Burgert and the fact that there is no eye contact between the figures isolates the depicted characters from one another and at the same time increases the symbolic effect.
“Jonas Burgert's paintings bring together a Panopticon of curious depictions enigmatically addressing what is hidden behind what is visible, and staging the compositional structure as if it were a cryptic theatre play. Although the viewer plunges into an emotional event whilst contemplating the paintings, he is not presented with a specific story. He rather faces multiple narrative sequences that imply a state of existence evoked by a mythical sphere”. (Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Das gemalte Welttheater des Jonas Burgert, in: Hans-Peter Wipplinger und Daniel J. Schreiber (ed.), Jonas Burgert, Lebendversuch, exhib.cat. Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen 2011, p. 75).
Catalogue Raisonné
Schreiber/Wipplinger 95
Provenance
Galerie Haunch of Venison, London (label verso); private collection, Hamburg
Exhibitions
Tübingen 2010 (Kunsthalle Tübingen), Krems 2011 (Kunsthalle Krems), Jonas Burgert, Lebendversuch, exhib.cat.no.95, p.87 with colour illus.
London 2009 (Galerie Haunch of Venison), Hitting Every Head