Working from photographs, German painter Eberhard Havekost (born 1967) abstracts prosaic images to produce a Mannerism of the everyday. Painting in color only after laying down six underlying coats of grey and white, the artist arrives at a rich luminosity that he terms "democratic light." This book features a new series of paintings dealing specifically with the optical processes of perception.
Published by Rubell Family Collection. Text by Mark Coetzee, Meghan Dailey, Ulrich Loock.
The work of German artist Eberhard Havekost critiques the proverbial dialogue between painting and photography by establishing a visual language that hovers in the grey space between the two. What is at once apparent in the juxtaposition of these two seemingly disparate media in Havekost's hands is their mutual dependence--despite their differences. Working from personal photographs and found images, Havekost presents iconography that is familiar to all urban and suburban dwellers: bland Modernist structures, featureless landscapes and images of actual and impending violence. The significance of his work lies not in its subject matter, however, but in its execution. His creations are original works, made by hand, but by digital processes too. Published on the occasion of Havekost's first museum showing in the United States.
PUBLISHER Rubell Family Collection
BOOK FORMAT Hardback, 7 x 9.5 in. / 154 pgs / 72 color / 25 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 7/1/2008 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2008 p. 128
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9780971634190TRADE List Price: $30.00 CDN $40.00 GBP £27.00
Published by Hatje Cantz. Essays by Susanne Köhle and Annelie Lütgens. Preface by Thomas Köhle.
What makes Eberhard Havekost's paintings so disquieting, so ambiguous? Perhaps it's the way he pairs photographic and video-inspired perspectives with large-format brushwork and controlled distortion, forcing lingering gazes accustomed to resting on more familiar painting styles or more focused photography to slip and slide over the surfaces of faces, emotions and buildings. As for subject matter, Havekost often appropriates images from television and newspapers, and, recently, he has also been adapting from his own photographs. Unlike Gerhard Richter, he is not involved in a painter's skeptical attempt to increase the value of the photographic subject, but is instead engaged with the media's skeptical way of dealing with the photograph as a document. Harmonie collects Havekost's paintings from over the last seven years, and is the first book to do so.
Eberhard Havekost 1996-2006
Eberhard Havekost: Harmonie