Thomas Baumgärtel und Otto Alexander Jahrreiss Plakat

more than 400 years ago the word PLAKAT -poster is born in the Netherlands. During a war of liberation that lasted more than eighty years, one of the means of communication was to glue printed leaflets to their houses' walls. Since than there have been many useful applications to the medium in public notices and advertisement. Among the most beautiful species are posters for museums exhibitions, inviting us to visit very special shows. Today however, posters in our cities yield more and more to digital formats.

This is where Thomas Baumgärtel and Otto Alexander Jahrreiss intervene, each of them in a very special way. Both are interested in these products of the street, especially what remains after exposure to wind and storm. While the artworks of both artists could not be more different.

This is where Thomas Baumgärtel and Otto Alexander Jahrreiss intervene, each of them in a very special way. Both are interested in these products of the street, especially what remains after exposure to wind and storm. While the artworks of both artists could not be more different.

Otto Alexander Jahrreiss loves a formative coincidence, recollecting images from various posters that he finds in the South of Italy. With a trained eye the fotografer, director, author, advertising and theater artist is looking for a spark of eternity in the transitory posters, making collages of a part of a Botticelli Venus here  and a Medici beauty there, decollaging other parts and thus creating unlimited options for his ideas. The use of parts of old posters makes us regret that the image is destoryed, while at the same time there is a distinct fascination that is caused by the reborn composition. It is the ideal playground for an artist like Jahrreiss, who's mind is used to constantly travel between the speed of a film and the firm image of a foto.

He wants to find those images of today's life that are stable and will not look outdated when you look at them a later moment. At the same time it seems to be fascinating to apply these thoughts to works of decay like posters, to create a piece of art out of many damaged throw away articles. Its background, coulours, forms invite the eye to make new discoveries. Once in a lecture at the Berlin Academy of Arts Georg Baselitz expressed the desire to be the artist with the longer arm who could paint behind the artwork. Some of these vanished images have now reappeared in a new shape and Jahreiss invites us to  think about various possibilities to rediscover which memories they excite.

The foundation of Thomas Baumgärtel's posters are layers of posters that had been glued to brick walls many years ago. These he turns around so that the brick structure is still visible and covers the surface with a hibernal light blue colour, to give it another chance with different motives. There seems to be a certain scepticism over the fact that this work is build upon fragile grounds. It is not only the material that is under observation, but as well the motive. Here Baumgärtel chooses for example Piet Modrian and Fernand Léger as example, reminiscent of times in in the abyss when new ideas could have changed the world aesthetically to a great planet. To think about Mondrian and Léger today is a wonderful aesthetical enrichment.

It is not the only way to prove how to avoid decay. Baumgärtel chooses all  kind of material to paint and spray on. While thinking about the way of working of his predecessors, he applies new ways of painting and contemporary ideas to existing motives. This does not stop with modern masters, but is applied by the Cologne artist to his Düsseldorf predessors Beuys, Richter, Ueckers. The competition between the cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf thus becomes very relaxed. And to him it is fun to incorporate a lot of comic figures into the art, inviting them to join the company.

We find continuity in visual art and are looking to provide a basis for contemporary art. While there is no safe ground, art constantly has to prove its own value as a safe harbour in stormy weather. Than the task of each new generation is enlightening and should be protected from generation to generation. Thomas Baumgärtel and Otto Alexander Jahrreiss are contributing to make the best aesthetical solutions a pleasing part of our lives.