Monika Kropshofer: New Work

Ricarda Geib
Stuttgart, Germany, September 2017

Gently touching the hermetically sealed skin of her large scale photo prints, opening it, stretching it, and even injuring it, Monika Kropshofer turns every print into an individual work of art. Onto the photographed motif she applies broad strokes of colour and intersecting lines, which are meant to gently break up the real world as it is depicted in the photograph. Here her preference for architectural subjects and her way of abstraction merge.

In her new group of works the artist has ribbed panes of plastic glass printed on both sides, with the effect that the superimposed pictures seem to shine from inside. This shows clearly that M Kropshofer is not interested in mimesis. Being a passionate photographer, she separates certain elements, arranging them into a new composition, thus creating space for  associations, for patterns and icons of ideas. The obviously painterly attitude in these works differs from her previous work, showing a new, dynamic approach.

The twisting movement of a skyscraper photographed in Seoul is due to the double exposure and a 180 degree turn. In this way the facade is turned into a suggestively luminous  spiral. Perspective lines organize the plane and suggest rhythms of space and time, the structure of which is transformed into a lively swinging motion. This movement rises from below and upwards, spreading, and swinging around the horizontal strokes of colours. Bright shades of blue and yellow create the impression of a filigree architcture, moving from inside, as it were, an image that prefers the appearance of volatility and change to that of duration and clarity.

Radio Broadcast from 2012, featuring the Exhibition »Changing Dream Streams« (in German) from Monika Kropshofer and Elisabeth Bergner, by courtesy of SWR2.