Born 1970, Tübingen, Germany
Lives and works in Berlin
Like some other contemporary abstract artists Anselm Reyle revisits modernist painting and sculpture. His interest in modernism stems for his early years, even before he became an artist, and this interest in the classic tradition of modernism has endured. But his paintings and sculptures are not a mere rehash of the work of those artists he admires from forty years ago, he contextualises modernist abstraction in the language of today’s visual culture with a unique perception that attempts to reinterpret the core values of pop-art and modernist conventions.
Anselm Reyle works in both two and three dimensions making paintings, that often have material like gold foil collaged onto their surfaces, and sculpture including the use of neon light. However, most of the materials he uses are easily available and cheap to buy. The kind you can buy in an art shop. His works are rough, and delicate, kitsch, cool and artificial. When he titles his works they give clues to their meaning. Allowing the spectator to interpret them in a way that is different from the purely abstract and formal.
Most of Anselm Reyle’s painting and sculpture is based on something that he has found or seen. For example the combinations of coloured stripes in his paintings may be based on a painted wall that he photographed in a desert village or, in sculpture, a fake African figurine made for tourist consumption.
‘I like the idea that kids as well as people who have nothing to do with art can also find their own access to my work. It’s as simple as standing and waiting to cross the road…’