Artist Series – Volume 2: Christian Awe and his exhibition “Ikigai”

Measured against his other works, these are rather small. A 400-square-metre painting by Christian Awe is by no means a rarity. When he works on a format of 1 by 1.20 metres with the same force and intensity, the viewer is exposed to a concentrated charge of energy – the kind with which Awe has been known to transform entire firewalls or neighbourhoods.

In Japan and Russia, for example, quite apart from Berlin, his hometown.

Christian Awe paints on walls, tarpaulins, canvases or seemingly endless lengths of paper. Whatever surface he chooses, his colours are always of extreme intensity, luminosity and exuberant dynamism. They seem almost to burst and swell out of the white nothingness, in forms that at first glance appear accidental and yet are placed with full calculation.

Some works are reminiscent of water images. As if oil paints had been dabbed onto water and then absorbed again by highly absorbent paper. But nothing is as it seems with Awe – and certainly nothing is that simple. His works appear extremely sculptural and close to reality, as if real drops were flowing across the painting ground and wetting the surface. They are built up in layers, with effects of depth, and yet they are always completely flat and finely glazed.

“They are like clouds in the sky. The longer you look, the more you can discover in them.” This is how the young Awe was once quoted, not long after he had left the academy. He studied with Georg Baselitz and Daniel Richter.

Now 43 years old, he comes to Bachmair Weissach at Lake Tegernsee with an exhibition entitled “Ikigai”. In Japan, where Awe has exhibited many times, this expression stands for a sense of well-being. It encompasses the feeling that life is filled with meaning, as well as the joy of being alive.

“Ikigai” – within the Bachmair Weissach cosmos, guests are certainly familiar with this state. And not only when sitting in the Onsen Spa or at the Mizu Bar.

Christian Awe’s paintings – Vernissage: 6 May 2022