THE ICONOGRAPHY OF A FALLEN LOVE (ANNE BOLEYN)
triptych 2016
acrylic and oil on canvas
330 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm

The triptych is the fruit of a long-term internal creative dialogue with the use and meaning of Gold and Copper. I do love the famous use of these colors by Gustav Klimt and by medieval iconographers. My own contemporary interpretation (or maybe transfer) features dozens of really thin color layers and gradients mixed with Gold, Copper and Earth-Colors. Each of the three paintings highlights a different aspect of this transfer, but they contain not only a creative message as single piece. You can look at them also in a major conceptional context and from combined aesthetic standpoints as well as with regard to contents. This triptych THE ICONOGRAPHY OF A FALLEN LOVE (ANNE BOLEYN) has to tell a story.

About my thoughts and emotions during the painting process: Love comes, love goes. The rise and fall from grace in ten years. England in Renaissance... Speaking about Anne Boleyn, the second wife of the famous King Henry VIII who has been called the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had. In spring 1526 Henry began his pursuit of Anne Boleyn, an attractive and beautiful young lady at his court. He felt in deep love and wrote a collection of passionate love letters to her. But she resisted his attempts to seduce her, refusing to become only his mistress (which her sister Mary had been). She wanted more, and so he proposed marriage to her and she accepted. For her love he was willing to move mountains and annulled his former marriage and declared his independence from the Holy See that was the start of the English Reformation. Anne was crowned Queen of England as the second wife of King Henry VIII on 1 June 1533. She gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I. But as a queen Anne refused to play the submissive role expected of her. The vivacity and opinionated intellect that had made her so attractive as an illicit lover made her too independent for the largely ceremonial role of a royal wife and it made her many enemies. Henry, who started to dislike Anne's constant irritability and violent temper, was more and more disappointed to have only a daughter rather a son. Anne's downfall came shortly after she had recovered from her final miscarriage. At this time the king found a new mistress and needed reasons for his marriage with Anne to end. Anne Boleyn was arrested and sent to the Tower of London where a jury found she guilty for high treson. It was a propaganda trial with untrue accusations, but nobody rose the word for Anne. On the morning of Friday 19 May 1536 she was beheaded within the Tower of London and buried in an unmarked grave. The day after Anne's execution Henry became engaged to Jane Seymour, who had been one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting. They were married ten days later (the third of finally six wives of King Henry VIII). Beside all politics and intrigues, what did happen to this former so passionate big love? Remember the final sentence of the famous Song of the Nibelungs (5th century): 'At the end love bears always suffering'. Love comes, loves goes. The rise and fall of Anne Boleyn in ten years...

The triptych combines following 3 works and should "read" from left to right:

"AT THE DYING OF THE LIGHT"
acrylic and oil on canvas, 2016, 100 (w) x 120 (h) x 2 cm
left part of the triptych

"ARE YOU WITH ME AT FIRST AND LAST LIGHT"
acrylic and oil on canvas, 2016, 120 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm
center part of the triptych

"THE AWAKENING COASTLAND"
acrylic and oil on canvas, 2016, 100 (w) x 120 (h) x 2 cm
right part of the triptych

* * * *

"I beseech you now with all my heart definitely to let me know your whole mind as to the love between us..."
- Extract of a love letter from Henry to Anne

"O Death, rock me asleep, bring me to quiet rest, let pass my weary guiltless ghost out of my careful breast."
- Anne Boleyn

"Of all losses, time is the most irrecuperable for it can never be redeemed."
"Two beheadings out of six wives is too many."
- Henry VIII of England

IT IS ALWAYS DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN
Triptych 2016/17
380 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm
acrylic and oil on canvas

LARGE-SIZED PAINTINGS.
LARGE-SIZED TRIOLOGY AS TRIPTYCH.

We are all connected with nature. If we are thoughtful, if we are regardful, we can feel and see the strong bonds between earth and us. From the beginning to the end of time life is dictated by light, seasons and by darkness, water and winds. We all have our fate. And we are on a lifelong journey from source to sea, from the mountains to the valleys. Life's path is no straight line but sometimes a labyrinth. We have to cross lightless forests and wintry plateaus, have to face strong storms and bleak deserts. But every trip, every turn and new risk makes us stronger and wiser. We are failing but learning. Day by day we come closer to our roots. Will we learn the lesson(s) and move on? We do need the night to recognize the beauty of light. It is so much more than a metaphor. Darkness is not the end. It is just the last step before the returning daylight. It can be an alliance or a duel, but in the end nature will always win.

I share the opinion of the famous Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944), that paintings contain not only a creative message as single piece. You can look at them also in a major conceptional context. This triology IT IS ALWAYS DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN combines three very poetic works (2016/2017) from aesthetic standpoints as well as with regard to contents.

* * *

The triptych combines following works and should "read" from left to right:

"WHEN THE NIGHT FALLS ON SACRED LAND"
acrylic and oil on canvas, 2017, 120 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm
left part of the triptych

"WHERE THE WHITE WINDS BLOW II"
acrylic and oil on canvas, 2016. 120 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm
center part of the triptych

"WHEN MORNING CONQUERS THE DARK OF NIGHT"
arylic and oil on canvas, 2017, 120 (w) x 150 (h) x 2 cm
right part of the triptych

* * * *

"It is said that the darkest hour is just before the dawn."
- Thomas Fuller (1608 - 1661)

"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."
- Aristotle (384 - 322 BC)

AS WIDE AND AS WAVERING AS THE OCEAN
150 (h) x 120 (w) x 4 cm / 59,1 (h) x 47,2 (w) x 1,6 in
acrylic and oil on canvas
2019

Inspired by these magic moments when the Southern California morning sun rises above the Pacific Ocean in Venice Beach, Los Angeles...

What is this life for? You don't answer. Your thoughts are offshore. And your eyes stare at me in the dark. Are you scared to be lonely? Everyone has its own path to follow. Reality is no peacekeeper. We were only giants in the morning light. You cannot hide what you aren't anymore, down by the sea. Don't speak a word, listen to the breaking waves. No one calls our ships back to port. Your soul and my heart, as wide and as wavering as the ocean.

CB/2019

* * *

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
~ Mother Teresa

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came."
~ John F. Kennedy

IN BREATHLESS SILENCE
2012
59,1 (w) x 47,2 (h) x 0,79 inches
150 (w) x 120 (h) x 2 cm
acrylic and oil on canvas

An older work, just back from a multi-year exhibition: breathless, speechless and silent in the face of the rough sea raising a storm onshore. Do we still remember yesterday when the waters were smooth? Breathless, speechless and silent, will you still love me tomorrow and when I'm no longer young and beautiful?

* * * *

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

ARRIVAL OF THE UNSEEN ENEMY
100 (w) x 120 (h) x 4 cm
39,4 (w) x 47,2 (h) x 1,57 inches
acrylic and oil on canvas
2020

Leave your candle burning
Light to follow into the unknown
Hope to withstand the rising dark
Love to unmask all these nightmares
Leave your candle burning
And look into my face
We have seen us before.

CB/2020

* * * *

“The unseen enemy is always the most fearsome.”
~ George R.R. Martin (ex: A Clash of Kings)

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
2021
50 (w) x 40 (h) x 0,3 cm
19,7 (w) x 15,7 (h) x 0,12 in
acrylic and oil on canvas board
Coronavirus series

“All Quiet on the Western Front“ is an international bestseller and famous anti-war novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front. The novel was first published in 1929. The book was banned and burned in Nazi Germany. In 1930, the book was adapted as an Academy-Award-winning film of the same name, directed by Lewis Milestone.

* * *

“We have so much to say, and we shall never say it.”
“He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.”

~ Erich Maria Remarque (ex: All Quiet on the Western Front)

* * *

About the background:

This painting is one of a monochrome series of current works that artistically deal with the subject of the coronavirus and the effects. There is an existential threat that is not exactly tangible, remains diffuse and yet dominates everything. What does this pandemic do to the individual? What will remain of this strangely depressing time? Sometimes a look at history helps. In modern history, how did previous generations deal with such dramatic episodes? And we understand, there were dramas of completely different dimensions that humans are able to cope with.

A war of annihilation raged around a hundred years ago (1914 - 1918) that set the entire world on fire and changed everyone: The First World War is the key event of the 20th century and is still having an impact today. The history books contain the names of the generals and the great battles. But what about the normal individual, the one in the trenches as well as the families who struggled for survival back home? How did you think, how did they feel in the midst of an existential threat that they had no control over?

The photos of the battlefields of the First World War, in particular the fighting on the Western Front in Flanders, before Verdun and on the Marne and Somme (between German, French, British, American, Belgian, Australian, New Zealand, Portuguese, and Canadian soldiers) formed the con-crete template for these paintings. The monochrome color scheme of the paintings, dominated by Prussian Blue, refers to the historical black and white photos. The letters that the soldiers at the front wrote back home are well documented. And anyone reading this field post today will notice that the men in the armies (and their families) thought and felt alike despite their opposition. And even more, how similar people were to us with all their hopes and fears at the beginning of the 20th century, more than we probably want to admit.

Today these battlefields have been renatured. The fields and forests are quiet and peaceful, and almost nothing gives an inkling of the earlier horror, the trenches, and mass armies that generated unprecedented destructive power with modern weapons. What determined the fate of millions of people is now only a fading memory. And this is exactly what the artworks in this series of paintings tell about. There is a fundamental insight: every horror has an end at some point. The chance to shape life individually and freely again will return. The coronavirus will only remain a temporary episode in all of our lives. And in a hundred years at the latest we won't even remember what is troubling us now, what caused it, whether it was good or bad, and whether it was a medical or a human disaster. The dark fades (too) quickly. Man is a survivor and always looks ahead. And that's how I want the paintings in this series to be understood, despite the difficult subject, as signs of firm hope.

FLANDERS FIELDS IN EARLY WINTER (diptych)
Diptych 2021
Complete dimension hung with a distance of 10 cm / 3,9 in:
80 (h) x 130 (w) x 2 cm / 31,5 (h) x 51,2 (w) x 0,79 in
each of the two parts 80 (h) x 60 (w) x 2 cm / 31,5 (h) x 23,6 (w) x 0,79 in
acrylic and oil on canvas
Coronavirus series

Flanders Fields is a common English name of the World War I battlefields in an area straddling the Belgian provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders. "In Flanders Fields" is also a war poem, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral his friend, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. It is one of the most quoted poems from the war. Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance poppy becoming one of the world's most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in conflict.

* * * *

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row…
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.”

~ John McCrae, May 3, 1915 (ex: “In Flanders Fields”)

* * * *

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”
~ Ernest Hemingway, 1946
Hemingway was 18 years old when he volunteered to be an ambulance driver for WWI. He suffered physically and mentally from the horrors of war. As a novelist, he used his writing to show the criminality of the war.

* * * *

About the background:

This diptych is one of a monochrome series of current works that artistically deal with the subject of the coronavirus and the effects. There is an existential threat that is not exactly tangible, remains diffuse and yet dominates everything. What does this pandemic do to the individual? What will remain of this strangely depressing time? Sometimes a look at history helps. In modern history, how did previous generations deal with such dramatic episodes? And we understand, there were dramas of completely different dimensions that humans are able to cope with.

A war of annihilation raged around a hundred years ago (1914 - 1918) that set the entire world on fire and changed everyone: The First World War is the key event of the 20th century and is still having an impact today. The history books contain the names of the generals and the great battles. But what about the normal individual, the one in the trenches as well as the families who struggled for survival back home? How did you think, how did they feel in the midst of an existential threat that they had no control over?

The photos of the battlefields of the First World War, in particular the fighting on the Western Front in Flanders, before Verdun and on the Marne and Somme (between German, French, British, American, Belgian, Australian, New Zealand, Portuguese, and Canadian soldiers) formed the con-crete template for these paintings. The monochrome color scheme of the paintings, dominated by Prussian Blue, refers to the historical black and white photos. The letters that the soldiers at the front wrote back home are well documented. And anyone reading this field post today will notice that the men in the armies (and their families) thought and felt alike despite their opposition. And even more, how similar people were to us with all their hopes and fears at the beginning of the 20th century, more than we probably want to admit.

Today these battlefields have been renatured. The fields and forests are quiet and peaceful, and almost nothing gives an inkling of the earlier horror, the trenches, and mass armies that generated unprecedented destructive power with modern weapons. What determined the fate of millions of people is now only a fading memory. And this is exactly what the artworks in this series of paintings tell about. There is a fundamental insight: every horror has an end at some point. The chance to shape life individually and freely again will return. The coronavirus will only remain a temporary episode in all of our lives. And in a hundred years at the latest we won't even remember what is troubling us now, what caused it, whether it was good or bad, and whether it was a medical or a human disaster. The dark fades (too) quickly. Man is a survivor and always looks ahead. And that's how I want the paintings in this series to be understood, despite the difficult subject, as signs of firm hope.