The depths of the human soul

The paintings of Blaise Reutersward cannot simply be looked at in passing.His heads and figures seep through our eyes and directly under our skin. They have an emotionality that does not leave the viewer cold. The slightly stylised, large-format faces show all facets of deep human feelings and states in a drastic and incredibly expressive way: they bear witness to despair, fear and sadness, to helplessness and perplexity, to falling silent and longing for death, but sometimes also to defiance and fighting spirit. One senses that these are self-portraits of an artist who intuitively and directly, with almost therapeutic fervour, allows his mental and physical pain to seep through his hands onto canvas and paper. These series develop a strong, suggestive power; they are images that you can no longer get out of your head. Blaise paints and draws with oil paint, charcoal, ink, but also with red wine or coffee. The works are sometimes blotchy, applied in glazes - there is something dreamlike, flickering, surreal about them. The dark paintings, only occasionally in warm brown tones, are wild, drastic and sensitive at the same time. They are reminiscent of the great works of Art Brut by Jean Dubuffet and Gaston Chaissac, of Edward Munch's series of „Screams“, or of Käthe Kollwitz' pictures of deepest pain. Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's phenomenal, sculptural studies of human heads from the 18th century also come to mind. Throughout the ages, artists have explored being by means of portraits and self-portraits, leaving behind testimony of what they are, feel and can do.
Blaise Reutersward's self-explorations and documentations also belong in this series: they are timeless, valid works that touch everyone.

Dr. Dorothee Achenbach