HomeVolume 7June 2022 Patience and observation

AN ART ESSAY


CHRISTIAN MACKETANZ explains the creative process behind the paintings in his exhibition.


The content of my paintings has always been our human traits. The best human qualities are found as well as our basest weaknesses; simply everything that affects us both externally and internally.

The people in my pictures are making honest efforts, often in spite of enormous obstacles, so I truly feel for them.





Sometimes their strivings are so grotesque that it feels ridiculous. Even so, I’m not in a position to help them.

It’s not up to me whether their efforts are successful or not. This lies in the eye, the mind, and especially the heart of the patient observer.

So, the fate of the people in my paintings is decided, and their story is created, by the viewer alone.

Patience and looking closely are necessary … especially because these are not motion pictures.

Painting has always been a means for me to go beyond the limits of knowing and understanding.





From the simplest graffiti to the most elaborate painting there is always someone behind it who has left the realm of thought, using a meager two-dimensional means of expression, who has put everything into that image.

Again and again, I’m amazed at how modest the undertaking of painting can be. It requires only minimal materials, hardly any space, and no knowledge.




Art by CHRISTIAN MACKETANZ



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Christian Macketanz

Christian Macketanz

Christian is Professor of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Dresden, Germany. He studied painting with Maria Lassnig in Vienna, and lived in Rome and Berlin before taking up his current post in Dresden. He is a Heartfulness trainer.

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