Astrid Klein | Sprüth Magers
Astrid Klein, Untitled (your mind is your own), 1979. Photowork. Edition of 3 + 1 AP
© Astrid Klein. Courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers Photo: Timo Ohler.
Interview by Makenna Karas
Photo Edited by Kit Matthews
Known for her striking, innovative approach to creating large-scale photoworks that combine image with text, German artist Astrid Klein seeks to challenge traditional modes of perception with her first solo exhibition in New York. On display at Sprüth Magers through March 9th, the exhibition brings two of her most famous bodies of work together in a stunning array that speaks to the persistence that certain themes have across space and time.
Astrid Klein, Untitled (je ne parle pas, ...), 1979 Photowork. Edition of 3 + 1 AP
© Astrid Klein. Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers Photo: Timo Ohler.
Makenna Karas: You have been regarded as a pioneer of multilayered, unique artistic practices since the 1970s. What first inspired you to want to work with collage on a large scale?
Astrid Klein: Collage is the basic principle of my work across all media: painting, installation, photoworks and sculpture. It is a form of doing away with unambiguity.
In the works exhibited in New York, monumentality counteracts intimacy. The monumental enables a different view of the subject and creates a direct physical perception. Tension arises between the viewer and the image, creating a dialogic space and realm of reflection. At the same time, the act of enlarging emphasizes the decontextualization of image and text material. The structures of perception and image become clearer.
Astrid Klein, Untitled (powerless...), 1979 Photowork. Edition of 3 + 1 AP © Astrid Klein. Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers Photo: Timo Ohler.
Makenna Karas: What is your process of selecting certain texts and images to work with, such as the letter X or the women from French New Wave and Italian cinema?
Astrid Klein: The European cultural context is visible in my work. The material for many of the works comes from European film magazines that were particularly concerned with European cinema, such as Godard, Truffaut, Antonioni, etc. Especially in French and Italian films, protagonists appeared who portrayed a particular image of women, an image that simultaneously showed sensuality, strength, fragility and independence—with distanced beauty.
These women did not hide their femininity. On the contrary, it was a celebration of femaleness in a highly complex way and a portrayal of the absurdity of life, which also includes failure.
The text fragments come from European literature and philosophy or my own writing. The letter X has always held meaning for me as a sign since the ’70s. It encapsulates the pictorial nature of language in its pure form. Among other things, it is a marker, eraser, underliner or placeholder. It can hold fragments together, be a connector.
Astrid Klein, Untitled (leave no memories...), 1979 Photowork. Edition of 3 + 1 AP © Astrid Klein. Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers Photo: Timo Ohler.
Makenna Karas: Your 1970s “photoworks” poignantly reflect the shifting perspectives influenced by second-wave feminism. How do you aim to redefine the narrative around female sexuality and identity through your art?
Astrid Klein: I am interested in exposing patterns of perception and thought. In the case of the women portrayed in my work, the change in the perspective of the gaze is quite apparent. The women are both objects and strong active subjects. I have always emphasized the feminine and not negated it. My pictures bear witness to the strength of women, while at the same time demonstrating their vulnerability and freedom. They stand for themselves. For me, that is an essential aspect of feminism.
Astrid Klein, Untitled (tragicmagic), 1988/93. Acrylic, quartz crystals, gypsum alabaster, zinc white on canvas. © Astrid Klein. Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers Photo: Timo Ohler.
Makenna Karas: The works in your “White Paintings” series consist of multiple layers of materials that bring a three dimensional aspect to the viewing experience. What do the layers represent thematically?
Astrid Klein: For me, the white paintings are pictorial spaces, places to pause, concentrate and rethink.
The whiteness of alabaster, plaster, and acrylic, and the reflectance of silver provides a sculptural and at the same time transparent quality to the works, allowing the gaze to penetrate the material and make the invisible visible. Word fragments amplify this sensation of space, opening up the picture’s surface. The resulting layers imply depth, which reflects the complexity of cognition, perception, remembering and forgetting.
Makenna Karas: What experience do you hope viewers take away from the show?
Astrid Klein: Ideally, encountering my works prompts a reconsidering of perception, a change of perspective, engagement, and renewed questioning of one’s view of things.
