Brigitte Rieger-Jähner Opening Speech

FRANEK The Vampire Behind, 17. Oktober 2004

Visual artists are often inspired by a dialogue with works by other painters and sculptors among their contemporaries or their predecessors, as indeed they are by the optical particularities of foreign cultures or the linguistic imagery of literature. FRANEK is no exception. She, too, has found affinities to her project in each of these three areas.

 “…The vampire behind me mimics my own stride,
And I hear him breathe whenever he steps aside…
 When the mark of his bite sinks into your skin,
doors will open wide that are soundless and green.
And the meadow’s edge glistens with my blood.
My eyes, O night, protect beneath a fool’s hood.”


 Ladies and Gentlemen, those were 3 of the 10 stanzas comprising Ingeborg Bachmann’s poem, “Heimweg” (The Way Home). One of the lines, “The vampire behind me mimics my own stride”, was selected by FRANEK as the overarching theme of her cycle of 12 large-format paintings, 9 of which are on view in this exhibition. The poetic magic of the language of this poem, which simultaneously attests to the unique lyricism of Ingeborg Bachmann’s poetry on the whole, challenged the painter to create in parallel with the poem. Yet, beyond this challenge, the commonalities of linguistic imagery and visual language can also be discerned in each of the two artists’ works. Hence, the painter, like the poet, creates worlds in which real things and non-real things are playfully interwoven with one another. We encounter “human beings, animals, plants, minerals, the elements, the universe”, as FRANEK summarises, as much in her paintings and drawings as we do in Bachmann’s poems. In neither of their respective oeuvres are these elements tied to specific times or places; they invoke a kind of paradise which, upon closer inspection, appears to be located in ambivalent proximity to the abysses of hell and perhaps, precisely for that reason, fills the linguistic and pictorial space with a floatingly unreal lightness.  

 Whereas Ingeborg Bachmann’s poetry appears detached from time and space, the ordering structure of FRANEK’s paintings and drawings, which serves to distinguish above and below, foreground and background, has lost its significance, as much as humanity has lost its sense of gravity. Thus, it is ultimately the wholeness of being that we are supposed to perceive, both visually and acoustically. Whereas in painting colour plays the leading role, and the line a supporting role, in the medium of drawing, the strength of individual works hinges entirely on the line. It defines the object on canvas or paper. At the same time, however, the constant interruption of the strokes, the increase or decrease of their thickness, and the reduction of details results in a two-dimensional design – both in painting and drawing alike – appearing three-dimensional, and in material and immaterial existence appearing to fuse together within a symbiotic relationship. Indeed, these dualisms identify both the artist and the writer as traditionalists and avantgardists at the same time. Thus, in their work, a permanent alternation between a familiar rhythm and unfamiliar associations takes place. They choose motifs which are familiar and nevertheless create surprising images, all the while employing a conventional repertory of forms; they articulate our contemporary awareness of life, which, in a state of permanent ambivalence, remains situated between mistrust and our fear of destruction and death. 

 5 works from the cycle produced in 2004 bear the subtitle “The Sleep of Reason”, which is redolent of Francisco de Goya’s Capricho 43 (1797/98), whose full title reads: “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”. Beneath the picture the following words were inscribed by Goya: “The author dreaming. His only intention is to banish harmful platitudes and with this work of the Caprichos to perpetuate the solid testimony of truth.” Though Goya’s brilliantly formulated satires may, in contrast to FRANEK’s pictures, be best assessed – especially in terms of content – as a critique of the times, the choice of theme is not the only point the two artists share in common. Hence, Goya’s artistic credo, expressed as follows, equally applies to FRANEK’s work: “I personally see only illuminated and unilluminated forms, surfaces which come to the fore, and surfaces which recede, height and depth … In nature there is neither colour, nor lines, only light and shadow. Every painting is a matter of renunciation and decision.”  

Visual artists are often inspired by a dialogue with works by other painters and sculptors among their contemporaries or their predecessors, as indeed they are by the optical particularities of foreign cultures or the linguistic imagery of literature. FRANEK is no exception. She, too, has found affinities to her project in each of these three areas.

 “…The vampire behind me mimics my own stride,
And I hear him breathe whenever he steps aside…
 When the mark of his bite sinks into your skin,
doors will open wide that are soundless and green.
And the meadow’s edge glistens with my blood.
My eyes, O night, protect beneath a fool’s hood.”


 Ladies and Gentlemen, those were 3 of the 10 stanzas comprising Ingeborg Bachmann’s poem, “Heimweg” (The Way Home). One of the lines, “The vampire behind me mimics my own stride”, was selected by FRANEK as the overarching theme of her cycle of 12 large-format paintings, 9 of which are on view in this exhibition. The poetic magic of the language of this poem, which simultaneously attests to the unique lyricism of Ingeborg Bachmann’s poetry on the whole, challenged the painter to create in parallel with the poem. Yet, beyond this challenge, the commonalities of linguistic imagery and visual language can also be discerned in each of the two artists’ works. Hence, the painter, like the poet, creates worlds in which real things and non-real things are playfully interwoven with one another. We encounter “human beings, animals, plants, minerals, the elements, the universe”, as FRANEK summarises, as much in her paintings and drawings as we do in Bachmann’s poems. In neither of their respective oeuvres are these elements tied to specific times or places; they invoke a kind of paradise which, upon closer inspection, appears to be located in ambivalent proximity to the abysses of hell and perhaps, precisely for that reason, fills the linguistic and pictorial space with a floatingly unreal lightness.  

 Whereas Ingeborg Bachmann’s poetry appears detached from time and space, the ordering structure of FRANEK’s paintings and drawings, which serves to distinguish above and below, foreground and background, has lost its significance, as much as humanity has lost its sense of gravity. Thus, it is ultimately the wholeness of being that we are supposed to perceive, both visually and acoustically. Whereas in painting colour plays the leading role, and the line a supporting role, in the medium of drawing, the strength of individual works hinges entirely on the line. It defines the object on canvas or paper. At the same time, however, the constant interruption of the strokes, the increase or decrease of their thickness, and the reduction of details results in a two-dimensional design – both in painting and drawing alike – appearing three-dimensional, and in material and immaterial existence appearing to fuse together within a symbiotic relationship. Indeed, these dualisms identify both the artist and the writer as traditionalists and avantgardists at the same time. Thus, in their work, a permanent alternation between a familiar rhythm and unfamiliar associations takes place. They choose motifs which are familiar and nevertheless create surprising images, all the while employing a conventional repertory of forms; they articulate our contemporary awareness of life, which, in a state of permanent ambivalence, remains situated between mistrust and our fear of destruction and death. 

 5 works from the cycle produced in 2004 bear the subtitle “The Sleep of Reason”, which is redolent of Francisco de Goya’s Capricho 43 (1797/98), whose full title reads: “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”. Beneath the picture the following words were inscribed by Goya: “The author dreaming. His only intention is to banish harmful platitudes and with this work of the Caprichos to perpetuate the solid testimony of truth.” Though Goya’s brilliantly formulated satires may, in contrast to FRANEK’s pictures, be best assessed – especially in terms of content – as a critique of the times, the choice of theme is not the only point the two artists share in common. Hence, Goya’s artistic credo, expressed as follows, equally applies to FRANEK’s work: “I personally see only illuminated and unilluminated forms, surfaces which come to the fore, and surfaces which recede, height and depth … In nature there is neither colour, nor lines, only light and shadow. Every painting is a matter of renunciation and decision.”  

                                                                               Prof. Dr. Rieger-Jähner - Museum Director

Publication: THE VAMPIRE BEHIND

Paintings: The Vampire Behind

Exhibitions: VAMPIR IM RÜCKEN (The Vampire Behind) - 2005 (Berlin) & VAMPIR IM RÜCKEN (THE VAMPIRE BEHIND) - 2004 (Frankfurt/O)

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