Visual wanderings in nature
by Josephine Boesen
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Paradoxical as it may sound, the ever-changing nature is a constant in the Danish artist Benny Dröscher’s artistic universe. Throughout his vast oeuvre, he has worked in a wide range of media, however, his focus on the unfolding of nature keeps remaining at the core of his practice. Get to know the internationally acknowledged artist, who illuminates the wonderfully vibrating poetry of nature.
In Denmark, there has been a main focus on Benny Dröscher’s sculptural works up until 2009, varying from rather flimsy constellations of twigs, glitter and other paraphernalia mixed with humorous titles such as It has been ages since I felt like this (2008) to massive installations like I am so tired of being an atheist (2006). Today, his primary medium is painting, which has caught international attention for quite some years now.
The surface of the canvas opens into a thematic play on graphical perspective, contrasting symbolic elements and a poetic streak of silence and chaos.
Like Benny Dröscher’s sculptural works, the paintings are symbolic manifestations of flora and fauna with a splash of irony.
The perfection of the painted images of small forest lakes, tall majestic trees and little tweety birds are contrasted by splotches of paint, referring to an almost Cy Twombly’sk tradition of abstract painting – expertly noted by art critic Lise Skytte Jacobsen in her review of the exhibition When time stops and time is never ending at Brænderigården in Viborg back in 2013.
The works of the corresponding title where, among others, later shown at Charlotte Fogh Gallery in the exhibition Recent Works (2015), which was Benny Dröscher’s first solo exhibition in a Danish gallery since 2007.
In Dröscher’s recent work, these splotches create the offset for the way the artist takes advantage of the eyes’ instinctive effort to make sense of abstraction. Like the famous portrait of the Lacemaker by Johannes Vermeer, the splotches of color play with the idea of form – is it a drifting fluff, a tulip going astray or just a splotch?
In the new series of prints ‘Sudden illumination’, the artist does not limit himself to merely working with figuration and non-figuration; he examines nothingness as well.
As a central focus point in Dröscher’s recent work, a pristine circle emerges. The unmarked paper works like a peep-hole to the past, when the paper was still merely white and untouched; a return to pure form and silence in the midst of life and the constant passing of time.
Space has a significant position in the paintings, or maybe more precisely put, Benny Dröscher contorts space. The rules of gravity seem obstructed; fruits and forest fragments are drifting around, not in a vicarious way, on the contrary, they have been carefully placed like furniture in a room.
The use of precise central perspective lets birch trees stretch into the indefinite sky, just like the illusionist painters of the baroque era created space where there was none.
Benny Dröscher is careful, his paintings emanate of thought and precision, and every move, every stroke of paint is attentively applied and contemplated. There is a beauty in the artist’s careful attention to detail in this weird mix of extreme control and obstruction of the mind’s eye. In Benny Dröscher’s oeuvre, control is not followed by its usual companions sense and purpose. When observing the paintings, one should not try to decode meaning, but rather open one’s mind to the absence of sense and their visual capturing of the poetry of nature.
CV
Benny Dröscher
Represented by
Robischon Gallery, Denver, USA
Public collections
Malmö Konstmuseum, Sverige, 2001, 2002, 2008
Arken – Museum for Moderne Kunst, Ishøj 2000, 2004
Statens Museum for Kunst, Kobberstiksamlingen, København2001
Statens Kunstfond 2002
Kastrupgårdsamlingen 2009
Statoil Hydro Art Collection, Norway 2008
Nykredit, DK 1999, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013
NoVo Nordica, DK 2005, 2006
Nordea, Norway 2008
Hendes Majestæt Dronningen af Danmarks private samling 2006
Museum Trapholt, Kolding 2009
The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, 2011
Die Helaba Kunstsammlung (=Kunstsammlung Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, Frankfurt a. M.), Tyskland, 2013
Museum Städel, Frankfurt a.M, Tyskland 2015.