André Thomkins Lackskins

Thomkins has created stormy, unpredictable, dynamic compositions. A curious effect of their volatility is that they seem as uncontrolled as the weather, yet because they are so complex it seems impossible that they were arrived at by chance. Artforum, London

André Thomkins (193085) was a renowned draughtsman, painter, and word artist, who combined a classic mastery of artistic media with a sense of whimsy and experimentation influenced by both surrealism and Dadaism. In the 1950s, Thomkins created what he called Lackskins by applying gloss paint to water. In a method similar to marbling paper, Thomkins would then use paper to pick up the abstract pattern of the paint on the surface of the water. He discovered this new approach to painting after he observed that glossy paint left a film of color on the surface of the water as he washed his paintbrushes. With great care and genuine curiosity Thomkins manipulated the color on the top of the water, and created what he described as something planetary, very light, and fluctuating. Each piece combines the calculation of a watchful artist with the spontaneity of water in motion, resulting in works that are intoxicating but distant, colorful but unknowable. These pieces foreshadowed the later chromatic abstract paintings of younger generations.

Published to coincide with an exhibition of the Lackskins in the Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur, André Thomskins Lackskins is the first comprehensive presentation of these works. Thomkins's own writing on his Lackskins is also collected in this volume.

Autorentext

Andre Thomkins (1930-1985) is renowned as a draughtsman and word artist. The artist from Switzerland spent most of his life in Germany. His rich ingenuity contributed to a special artist biography being attributed to him, making him appear as an imaginary sorcerer moving the world with a master's hands. Stephan Kunz, art historian, has been a curator at the Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau 1988 - 2011. He has been appointed director of the Bundner Kunstmuseum Chur in 2011. Dagmar Streckel, art historian, curator of Andre Thomkins's estate at the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein.

Klappentext

André Thomkins (1930-1985) ist als meisterhafter Zeichner und Wortkünstler bekannt, der die klassischen Bildmedien wie wenig andere beherrschte, gleichzeitig aber mit verschiedenen Techniken und Materialien experimentierte. Er war «bekannt als Meister des Nebensächlichen, des Tangentialen, des Anekdotischen» (Art on Paper, New York). Immer auf der Suche nach neuen Möglichkeiten des Ausdrucks, entwickelte Thomkins ab Mitte der 1950er-Jahre eine neue Technik: seine «Lackskins», in denen er mit Lack auf Wasser malte und auf diese Weise Bilder von ungeheurer imaginativer Wirkung erzeugte. Die Lackskins scheinen «so unkontrolliert wie das Wetter» (Artforum, London), sie kombinieren Spontaneität und Berechnung auf berauschende, aber kühle Weise und nehmen so die chromatisch abstrakte Malerei jüngerer Generationen vorweg. Das vorliegende Buch und die Ausstellung im Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur zeigen nun erstmals umfassend diese grossartige Werkgruppe, die überraschend viele Facetten der Kunst von André Thomkins offenbart und einen neuen Zugang zu seinem faszinierenden Werk eröffnet. Erscheint zur Ausstellung im Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur (26. Mai bis 26. August 2012).

Inhalt

Contents: Essays: Stephan Kunz - Gloss Paint Dynamorphoses Daniel Spoerri - This is a Simple Method of Banalisation of The Contemporary Styles of Painting Andre Thomkins - Laboratory for the laquedynamorphosis Andre Thomkins - That is the Simplest Instance of Painting Carlheinz Caspari - Andre Thomkins, Lackskins, Standard Oils, Charnieres Andre Thomkins - The Process Andre Thomkins - The 'Scharnier' (hinge)