Lot 651 D

“Bisky finds gestures and figures in the street, in advertisements, in the observation of city life as well as in extensive travels which nourish his imagination with impressions from other parts of the globe. Nevertheless, his personal appear to be types, not individuals. Whether they have a beard or blond hair, the figures correspond to the artist in age and physique. The situations in which he places the figures draw on news items: storm and flood disasters in Louisiana or Pakistan, earthquakes in Haiti, large fires around Moscow. He collects further gestures and poses from glossy magazines. Here, athletic men can fly, spit fire, surf leisurely with one hand in a dark business suit, even jump high and long. Bisky takes on motifs which permanently surround us and assembles them in collages of drastic context that deal only in emotional acts: flight, help, love. There is no room for individual gesture in these intense paintings. […] Like Caravaggio he surprises with an extraordinary realism that establishes a link between the sacred and the profane rooted in our contemporary world.” (Katja Blomberg, Norbert Bisky's male portraits: No hope, no fear, 2010 in: URL: http://www.norbertbisky.com/essays/katja-blomberg/#1461606765580-65dbf127-f951 <http://www.norbertbisky.com/essays/katja-blomberg/>, Stand: 13.04.2018).