Vittorio Brodmann

Born in Ettingen, Switzerland, 1987

Lives and works between Berlin (Germany) and Zurich (Switzerland)

His pictures have a soothing and relaxed effect, yet despite their lightness they are anything but innocent. Next to an occasionally almost childlike disposition and the attendant abysses, they inherently reflect upon the preconditions under which one can paint in the first place nowadays. Brodmann is informed by the knowledge of the concrete battles surrounding the question of whether and how one can paint today, but not with the skepticism of a meta-painter. His brushstrokes are not hesitating, and he doesn’t work with withdrawal, delay, and the promises of those pictures that could be painted, but for which one repeatedly finds reasons not to paint just yet. He does not exclude all these doubts, but skips them by bringing other driving forces into play, ones that raise his down-to-earth painterly stance from of its foundations. Brodmann paints looking forward, with energy and imagination, to step out of the shadow of possible impossibility and arrive not at a lack but at abundance. As powerful and dynamic as his pictures may appear, he has been aware from early on of the problematic proximity to “grand painting.” The specter of the hero, who hits every nail right on the head, turns into the figure of a comedian, who goofs up.

GALLERIES:

Galerie Gregor Staiger

Fitzpatrick Gallery