Matthias Dornfeld CRÈME FRAÎCHE

Matthias
Dornfeld lives and works in Berlin. Born in 1960 in Esslingen, he studied at
the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he later held a visiting
professorship. In the past he showed his works in solo exhibitions in Chicago,
New York, Vancouver and London, among others. Currently, his works can be seen
as part of the exhibition “Ungekämmte Bilder” at the
Pinakothek in Munich. Solo exhibitions in recent years include “Freud me” at Waldburger Wouters in Brussels, 2023, “L’amour change tout” at Kunstverein Oldenburg, 2022, and
“Crème Brulée” at Soy Capitàn in Berlin, 2020. “CRÈME FRAÎCHE” marks his
first time showing works at JVDW Gallery.

Dornfeld’s figurative imagery is dominated by motifs such as horses, portraits,
and stilllifes. Although these
evoke certain associations and are not free of art historical connotations, for
Dornfeld they function merely as a means to an end for the formal. The
renunciation of the claim to want to convey content through motifs creates
space for intuitive and unbiased work.

Dornfeld’s working method can be described as an attempt at raw and undisguised
spontaneity. In the experiment he sees the possibility of being thrown o course
– of missing
the mark, but perhaps shooting in the right direction and thus discovering new
territory.

Despite
the pictorial worlds, some of which can be described as joyfully liberated,
there is a deep seriousness in the works, because the intention to free oneself
from the constraints
of an analytical framework is the result of an intense engagement with
painting. Thus, the paintings are created in a kind of conscious loss of
control without the hold and certainties of a previous concept, with the aim of
discovering the unknown and unexpected.

A first
level or trace emerges almost by chance, while a second is deliberately placed
above it. Like thesis and antithesis, which find their way onto the canvas and
finally become a synthesis in the viewer. Through the open and abstract
pictorial language, the viewer is granted a high degree of his or her own
creativity and autonomy.

In
reduction, Dornfeld sees the possibility of allowing his own worlds of
associations to arise in the viewer. His works want neither to pretend nor to
explain, but to stimulate and to touch. Something that Dornfeld brings about
through radical honesty of himself, which flows into the works.

For
Dornfeld, his works are complete when they surprise him, when they amaze, and
when they open up previously unseen new worlds.

– Amira Hartmann