Christopher Lehmpfuhl: Between Pathos and Pastose / Forum Würth Arlesheim (XL)

VernissageTV

The current exhibition at Forum Würth in Arlesheim (near Basel, Switzerland), is dedicated to the German artist Christopher Lehmpfuhl. Christopher Lehmpfuhl is known for his impasto landscape and cityscape paintings, which he creates outdoors (plain air) in all weathers. The exhibition at Forum Würth Arlesheim is titled “Between Pathos and Pastose” and features paintings, watercolors, photographs and objects from the Würth Collection and the artist's studio. This video provides you with an exhibition walkthrough and an interview with the Director of Forum Würth Arlesheim, Myriam Rüegsegger, who talks about Christopher Lehmpfuhl's solo exhibition and the Forum Würth.  Christopher Lehmpfuhl: Between Pathos and Pastose / Forum Würth Arlesheim. August 15, 2023.

Transcript

00:00 [ambient noise]

00:16 We are here at Forumwild Ahlersheim.

00:19 This is an exhibition space that is on the outskirts of Basel.

00:23 You can easily reach us with the tramway or the train in approximately 20 to 30 minutes.

00:28 And if it's a beautiful day, it's highly recommended to take the bicycle

00:32 to just ride along, cycle along the river Beers.

00:37 And at the end you even get close to the nature protection site

00:42 and can begin your journey here in our exhibition.

00:46 We are one of the museums and associated galleries of the WURT Group from 15

00:52 that are in nine European countries that range from Norway to Spain and Switzerland.

01:00 And in Switzerland we have three art galleries, Ahlersheim where we are today

01:06 and Rorschach that is close to the Bodensee and Chur that is close to the mountains in the Kantengrabünden.

01:13 All the exhibitions are free of admission so you can come not only one time but several times

01:19 to experience an exhibition, to dive into a show.

01:23 And alongside the exhibition we also realise some cultural events

01:29 that are open not only to the employees but also to the public

01:33 because the Forumwild Ahlersheim is situated at the headquarters of WURT AG.

01:38 So business, culture and art coexist.

01:42 And this is also, art and culture are important to the WURT Group for a long time already

01:50 and this is also an expression of the vivid corporate culture

01:54 and Forumwild Ahlersheim is one of those examples where you can encounter art in that context.

02:00 We realise exhibitions with work from the WURT Collection.

02:04 In total the WURT Collection comprises 20,000 pieces of artwork

02:11 that over bridge basically 500 years of history of art

02:17 ranging from the late Middle Age up to the beginning of the 21st century.

02:23 And at the moment we are able to show Kees Christoffel Lehmfuhl's work

02:29 and that we could realise this exhibition with mainly pieces of the WURT Collection.

02:36 We have to thank Professor Reinhold Wurt, which is the entrepreneur and collector behind the WURT Collection

02:44 that in approximately 60 years of passionate collecting alongside his successful entrepreneurship

02:52 put together that beautiful collection and around 80 works from Christoffel Lehmfuhl.

02:58 Here in Ahlersheim we choose 35 artworks from the WURT Collection

03:05 and enriched them and complemented them with loans from the artist's own studio.

03:10 It's a monographic exhibition that is thematically hung

03:15 so you can travel with Christoffel Lehmfuhl through his home city Berlin

03:20 because he was born in 1972 in Berlin

03:23 and you can travel alongside him then around the world

03:27 because he did some painting trips to the USA, to Iceland and to India to just name some of them.

03:36 We are here standing in the middle of the cycle 'Berlin Schlossplatz im Wandel'

03:43 and the complete second floor is dedicated to the home city of the artist Berlin

03:50 and this cycle is a very important cycle or series of work

03:55 because he was driving across Berlin and he came about that Schlossplatz

04:03 where the DDR Palast der Republik was just deconstructed

04:08 and there were only still the staircases standing

04:13 and he was taken by that image and chose to do one painting

04:20 and in the end there became over 130 paintings

04:24 so over the years he got back to that place

04:27 and really captured that urban transformation process within his canvases.

04:32 We have within the exhibition also some objects of work that the artist lent to us.

04:40 You will see within the Berlin space a bicycle.

04:46 It's the possibility to tell the beautiful story how he came about to become a plein air painter

04:53 because Christopher Lehmvoll paints in the tradition of the impressionists outside, plein air.

04:59 No matter the weather, if it's windy or sunny, he takes his canvas, his painting material

05:05 and goes outside and faces the weather situation that he encounters.

05:11 It came about because during his study at the Hochschule der Künste, Hagika, in Berlin

05:17 one of his co-students was working with turpentine and it really smelled strongly

05:23 and he got some headache and decided on a short notice to take his bike and go outside

05:30 and somehow this process really spoke to him

05:34 and he built up on that and continued to do plein air paintings.

05:38 In the beginning it was only small formats because he had a little wine box

05:43 that he put on the back of his bicycle.

05:47 He put afterwards the paintings inside because oil paint takes a really long time to dry

05:52 in order to not damage them while going back to the studio with the painted paintings.

05:58 Afterwards, you just see it behind me, the scale and format of the paintings became much bigger

06:05 because his transportation possibilities also grew.

06:09 He now has a sprinter which is a little bus and the format of those canvases is 180 to 240 meters

06:17 and it's exactly the space that he has inside his little bus to be able to transport the canvases

06:25 that are freshly painted in order to not damage them.

06:29 If he feels like the situation that he wants to capture, the motive that he wants to ban on the canvas

06:37 is bigger than the canvas itself, he just chooses to take several canvases,

06:45 to put two of them together to extend the possibility of the image that he wants to transfer.

06:54 He is a master in capturing the essence of a place, the light of a summery, wintry day

07:07 and to transmit them through his paintings.

07:11 He instills in the viewer an emotion, he basically narrates a situation in which he just was

07:22 and what captured him and what he wanted to let speak through his canvases to the viewer.

07:30 Regarding Christoph Limpfohl's technique and painting, he paints plein air outside

07:35 which means he has to carry these big canvases to a place that he's chosen where he wants to paint

07:43 but also the buckets of color that are really heavy.

07:47 He applies the color by hand directly onto the canvas, so you will see that it's nearly a bit sculptural.

07:57 Relief thoughts come up because he applies kilos of oil paint and the canvases become also heavy due to that.

08:08 But it's really when you're close up, it feels like a very abstract painting.

08:13 Maybe you don't really recognize what should be shown and when you then take some distance

08:20 and choose to give some air between yourself and the painting, you see then all the motifs,

08:27 the building, the cranes, the cars moving on the streets and that will be visible to you once you have some distance.

08:37 So this play with abstracts and figurative is really feelable or you can really feel it in this exhibition.

08:45 It's also hung in a way that you have the possibility to move around the works in that way

08:50 and that you're not forced to be close all the time or in distance all the time

08:57 because this is something that is a beautiful experience.

09:00 We also have a very personal cycle or series of works within this exhibition.

09:05 It's a loan from Christopher Limpfuhl.

09:08 We show 13 paintings from Neue Heimat and this is an homage that he realized due to the fact that his mother and father

09:18 passed away really closely one after another.

09:21 And he says himself that it's somehow his grieving process that he started then painting from the photographs of his father

09:31 because his mother was a pianist and his father was a physicist but a passionate photographer.

09:38 So art and culture also played some role in his family at home.

09:44 And when his parents passed away he came about those photo books which he kindly also lent us one for this exhibition

09:53 and he wanted to paint those photographs.

09:57 And this work is very special not only because of the narrative behind it but also in the way that he worked

10:06 because he chose to paint those paintings in the atelier, so in his studio, on the basis of those photographs

10:14 and he chose to paint them with a brush so he distanced himself also from the canvas

10:20 and the colour palette is mainly just black and white.

10:25 And in our show we show 13 of those artworks out of a bigger series

10:32 and it's a beautiful poetic piece of work where you can see the family being in Japan

10:40 or you can see him and his sister together in Greece, the mother playing piano, the father in the laboratory.

10:48 So you have all these different very personal insights into his life in this series.

10:55 As I also mentioned, mainly the exhibition showcases big-scale oil paintings

11:02 but we also have a few paintings that are watercolours.

11:08 Many artists chose to do watercolours when they travelled

11:12 so many artists prefer this technique because it's easy to take it with you.

11:19 And he says that he chose the watercolours also especially due to the technique

11:25 because it's so contrary to the oil paint.

11:28 So in the oil paint he is painting big formats, he applies a lot of colour

11:34 and you also have the element of working from the back to the front

11:40 like applying different layers of paint onto the canvas.

11:45 And in the watercolour he says it's kind of the empress discipline

11:50 because once you apply the colour, once the page is dark, there is no room for correction.

11:57 And we have some beautiful India paintings in watercolour

12:02 where you can see how he also masters very skillfully

12:07 is able to capture those moments that really speak to him

12:13 that he encountered on his trip onto the paper.

12:17 The exhibition at Wormwood Alesheim comprises 35 artworks from the WURTH collection

12:24 enriched with some loans from the artist's own studio.

12:28 And when you walk up the staircase you already encounter

12:33 the first time the artist in the photographs of Florian Selig.

12:37 You can see there how the artist is standing on top of a mountain

12:41 in front of his canvas with buckets of colour.

12:44 And we have like two floors in our exhibition space

12:49 and when you come to the second floor there is a little film studio

12:52 in which you have three documentary movies from Sebastian Strade

12:56 who accompanied Christoph Lempfel not only in his home city in Berlin

13:01 but also in Helgoland and Iceland.

13:04 And it's a beautiful opportunity for a visitor to hear the artist speak himself about his work

13:10 and to travel with him on those painting trips and see him work and in his element.

13:17 The exhibition space was designed by Urs Wüthiko, a Basel-based architect.

13:25 We opened our doors in 2003 so we have our 20th Jubilee this year.

13:31 And it's a half elliptical space that is open over the two floors

13:38 so it also is possible to see the artworks from the second floor

13:42 that are on the lower floor or part of them

13:45 and that way it creates a beautiful dialogue between the different spaces.

13:49 [silence]

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