Thomas ZITZWITZ

The text below by Barbara Hess entitled «Hommage to the Spray Gun» is an excellent introduction to his works.

“Everything folds in its own way, the rope and the stick, but also the colors that are distributed according to the concavity and convexity of the luminous ray, and the sounds, all the more acute as the trembling parts are shorter and more tense.“
Gilles Deleuze, Le Pli. Leibniz et le baroque, Paris 1988

In the field of music a suite is an order of pieces with a common programmatic theme. Under the title of the exhibition Suite for Spray Gun Thomas ZITZWITZ brings together a series of paintings that were made using a spray gun – a technical tool, which is normally used in industry for the application of lacquers. The other common point of exponates is that the color is painted on a canvas irregularly folded. Only after the canvas is mounted on a canvas.

The process of Spray Paintings can be characterized by a directed chance, since the result of this process, which is of a directed part and another random part, is only visible when the canvas becomes a flat surface mounted on a chassis – similar to the material of a film, which must be chemically developed after exposure.  First of all, with the help of adhesive tapes, we define an area on the coated or raw canvas spread on the floor. Then the artist prepares this one, in a way like a piano by John Cage, by manipulating the fabric and from time to time placing objects under the canvas to design draperies. The surface thus prepared is treated with the spray gun – monochrome or polychrome – on all sides, to such an extent that the parts which are behind a crest and which are not affected by the paint mist remain empty, as the color becomes more pronounced on other parts, and where the absorption capacity of the canvas is exhausted, lakes of colors are formed.

The association of a landscape in relief unites some Spray Paintings with compositions of Abstract Expressionism such as the monumental Mountain and Sea (1952) by Helen Frankenthaler – an effect, which is countered in some works by bands painted on the edges of the image field, which disturbs the spatial effect and which instead emphasizes the very process of painting.

It goes without saying that Thomas ZITZWITZ is not the first artist in the history of painting who experiments with folding. Clearly in the discourse of painting after Modernism there is no longer any question of originality or authenticity but of a relationship of difference and productive divergence. The title Suite for Spray Gun is also understood as a reference to the Hungarian exile Simon Hantaï (1922 – 2008) who is a historical representative of folding.

In 1948 Hantaï left as an art student the territory of Socialist Realism and settled in Paris, the world capital of art of that time. There, between 1969 and 1973, was born his group of works Etudes (in music a designation for a musical composition written to serve to exercise the skill of the executant): All over large format executed on canvases folded several times, where the light, unpainted parts evoke an interlacing of bamboo leaves on a monochrome background.

Notably Thomas ZITZWITZ’s Spray or Crumple Paintings mark a difference in his own artistic practice. In the second part of the 90s he had realized installations of video, sound and odors. Towards the end of this Decade he concentrated more and more on the paint by using interference pigments, which are applied using a scraper in a transparent acrylic gel. The light- and color-saturated surfaces of these paintings, which are often separated by exact horizontal edges into two or three differently structured parts, change their colors according to the viewer’s point of view and the light situation. Their hybrid and atmospheric character – which is not only chromatically unstable, but also changes between the type of painting and object – was more evident in 2007 in the artist’s book Moleskine Orangée. There the confrontation with Kodachrome photos dating from the artist’s childhood in the South of France transformed the vivid paintings into abstract images of memory.

A little later, in early 2008, Thomas ZITZWITZ started working on the first Spray Paintings: It was also a deliberate change of the shiny and thicker surface“paint with pigments interfering with a more formal and less associative image effect”, as he formulated in his e-mail communication with American artist David Reed.

The relationship to the film mentioned at the beginning is for the Spray Paintings – whose visual appearance develops “only by straightening on the chassis – still significant in other respects. One of their most remarkable qualities is their illusionist and almost photorealist depth, since the three-dimensional aspect of the folding is preserved as a trace in the color applied on the canvas stretched. In fact, we can refer to them – like the images of photography or film – with the philosopher Charles S. Pierce as “indexical”.

Because between the spatial arrangement of the canvas on the floor of the studio and the visual appearance of the Spray Paintings as a two-dimensional painting exists a relationship of physical causality – similarly as in the association between the photographed object and its photographic image or cinematographic.Since bending is a transitional form between continuity and rupture – which, as Deleuze writes, is appropriate to divide differences, incompossibilities, disagreements, dissonances […] into as many possible worlds“– The Spray Paintings by Thomas ZITZWITZ constantly change between illusionism and self-reference: a moment of instability and ambiguity, which remains essential for his pictorial approach.

1964 born in Sindelfingen, lives in Cologne, Germany
Studied at Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe (Diplom)
Study visits at Universität der Künste Berlin, Accademia Belle Arti Perugia  and New York University

EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
(s) = solo shows

2025
Encre sympathique, curated by Thomas Zitzwitz, NEO VogelART lab, Nice Côte d’Azur (opening Sept 25)
Les étoiles quand l’aube peu à peu les efface (2), Galerie Richard 74 Rue de Turenne, Paris (s)
11 Mediations Biennale, Kraków
The Thin Thread Line, curated by Alex Radu and Thomas Zitzwitz, /SAC@BERTHELOT, Bucharest
Le Grand Bleu, NEO VogelART lab, Nice Côte d’Azur
Shaped Colour, Walzwerk Null, Düsseldorf
Clairvoyant, Galerie Norbert Arns, Köln (s)
Walking In My Shoes, Galerie Walter Storms, München
I Am Not My Body, Künstlerhaus Dortmund

2024
Tendre est la nuit, curated by Thomas Zitzwitz, NEO VogelART lab, Nice Côte d’Azur
Strange V, Al Colombo, Venezia
Chinese Roulette, Galerie De Zaal, Delft (s)
Shapes of Beauty, GAFU Galerie Fakulty Umėní Ostravské Univerzity, Ostrava
Seven Single Works, Galerie Norbert Arns, Köln
Der Mensch verschwindet wie am Meeresufer ein Gesicht im Sand, Die Möglichkeit einer Insel, Berlin

2023
La Valse, SMAC, Berlin
No28, Kunstgruppe, Köln
Individual All around, curated by Alex Radu and Thomas Zitzwitz, Timisoara 2023 European Capital of Culture, Timisoara
Nocturne, Galerie Norbert Arns, Köln (s)
Les étoiles quand l’aube peu à peu les efface, Galerie Richard 74 Rue de Turenne, Paris (s)
Totalement tendrement tragiquement, Museum gegenstandsfreier Kunst, Otterndorf (s)

2022
Die Vögel des Zufalls, curated by Thomas Zitzwitz, with Wim Delvoye, FORT, Gregor Hildebrandt, Robert Kraiss, Alicja Kwade, Alwin Lay, Oliver Mark, Anna Virnich, Thomas Zitzwitz, Galerie Norbert Arns, Köln
Purple Rain, Kunstgruppe, Köln
What I like!, Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen
8 Mediations Biennale Polska, Gdansk
Drei Farben, Galerie Walter Storms, München
Summer Painting Show, Galerie Richard 74 Rue de Turenne, Paris
Kiss Cool, Galerie Norbert Arns, Köln (s)
L’année dernière à Malmaison, curated by Alex Radu and Thomas Zitzwitz, with Olivia Berckemeyer, Louisa Clement, Dumitru Gorzo, Gregor Hildebrandt, Adelina Ivan, Alicja Kwade, Haleh Redjaian, Henning Strassburger, Mircea Suciu, Philip Topovolac, Ambra Viviani, Thomas Zitzwitz, /SAC@MALMAISON, Bucharest
Pleiades, Galerie de Zaal, Delft (s)
Collaborations, Guardini Stiftung, Berlin
Inauguration Group Show, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Dubai

2021
Opening exhibition, ELLIO Fine Art, Houston
25 Jahre Kunstgruppe, Kunstgruppe, Köln
New order, PR17, Berlin
I’ll be your mirror, Galerie Richard 74 Rue de Turenne, Paris (s)
Wie bereits eingangs erwähnt…, BcmA Arts Projects Space, Berlin
SCHWARZ auf SCHWARZ, PR17, Berlin
ARCHE’ Architecture of Universe, Pavilion 0 at Giudecca Art District, Venice
5. Arte Noah, Kunsthalle Feldbach, Austria
Als gäbe es ein Morgen, David Behning Galerie, Düsseldorf

2020
Time and space aren’t warping, promise, curated by Thomas Zitzwitz, with Elger Esser, Hervé Garcia, Gregor Hildebrandt, Robert Kraiss, Alicja Kwade, Daniel Lergon, Andreas Plum, Thomas Zitzwitz, Mediations Biennale Polska, Warsaw
Boxenstopp, Kwadrat, Berlin
Open Space, PR17, Berlin
Painting and Photography, Galerie de Zaal, Delft
ELF, Schau Fenster, Berlin

2019
Zone dangereuse, curated by Thomas Zitzwitz, with Claudia Comte, FORT, Katharina Grosse, Gregor Hildebrandt, Leiko Ikemura, Anselm Reyle, Thomas Zitzwitz, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg
In the Gallery, Gremillion & Co, Houston (s)
+1, Safe Gallery, Berlin
Kommunizierende Röhren 1, Salon René Holm, Berlin
Wer kann, der soll, Kunstgruppe, Köln

2018
Stand a little closer, Galerie de Zaal, Delft, Netherlands (s)
Mediations Biennale, Poznań, Poland
Sturmhöhen, Schafhof Europäisches Künstlerhaus Oberbayern, Freising
It smells like… flowers & fragrances, me Collectors Room, Berlin
YOUTOO 2018, Kunstgruppe, Cologne

2017
Wie bin ich nicht unglücklich, curated by Thomas Zitzwitz, with Berta Fischer, Gregor Hildebrandt, Alicja Kwade, Isa Melsheimer, Marcel Odenbach, Thomas Zitzwitz, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg
La Table Ronde, Diskurs Berlin
She comes in Colours everywhere, Akademia Sztuki W Szczecinie, Szczecin, Poland (s)
Mementos, Tour & Taxis, Bruxelles
Von Albers bis Richter, Museum Burg Wissem, Troisdorf, Germany
3 Ways, R.B.Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, USA

2016
Silk Airplane, Galerie de Zaal, Delft (s)
California Group, R.B.Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla
L’oiseau présente… Kaleidoskop, Ballhaus Ost, Berlin
A last View, Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen
Jennifer Juniper, Gremillion & Co, Houston (s)
The snoring Princess, Kunstgruppe, Köln

2015
Fields of Dreams, Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage, Köln (s)
20 Jahre, Kunstgruppe Köln

2014
Suite for Spray Gun, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg (s)
Imaginary Autobiographies, Gremillion & Co, Houston (s)
And on and on and on, Kunstgruppe Köln
8 Books Two Weeks – Kienbaum Artists’ Books, curated by Rolf Ricke, Temporary Art Tower, Köln
De guerre en guerre… expressions contemporaines, Commune de Altkirch

2013
Guermantes, Galerie de Zaal, Delft (s)
pieces, Kwadrat, Berlin
abstracts-two, Galerie de Zaal, Delft
Nach 1963, Galerie im Oberlichtsaal, Sindelfingen
Sweet Home – Reloaded, Häusler Contemporary, München

2012
Here, here, or there, Christ König-Kirche, Neuss (s)
Den wilden Detektiven, Hallmackenreuther Cologne in cooperation with Galerie Rupert Pfab (s)
Am Abend im Café Übersee, Kunstraum St. Michael, Cologne (s)

2011
Arbeiten aus dem Bleistiftgebiet, Van Horn, Düsseldorf
Die Sammlung Lütze – süddeutsche Kunst des 19. – 21. Jahrhunderts, Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen
The Cologne Portfolio, Gremillion & Co, Dallas (s)

2010
In side out, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York
Chromatic Tales, R.B.Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla (s)
Places and spaces out there, Galerie de Zaal, Delft (s)
Just Enough, R.B.Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla
Painting’s Prospects, Galerie Rupert Pfab, Düsseldorf (s)
Via Aurelia, Gremillion & Co, Houston (s)

2009
Likethingsiusedtotellyoulateatnight, Hallmackenreuther Cologne in cooperation with Galerie Rupert Pfab (s)
Well-Tempered, R.B.Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla

2008
In Patagonia, Galerie de Zaal, Delft (s)
2, Galerie de Zaal, Delft

2007
Premières gouttes de pluie, Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen (s)
Kava Kava, Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr
Reprise, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla California

2006
Secret Défense (with Gregor Hildebrandt), Galerie Rupert Pfab, Düsseldorf (s)
Like her thoughts were far away, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla (s)
Alors commença le bonheur, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque (s)
Glück auf, Schickeria, Berlin
Audio Relay, radiochiguiro, Lafayette
Totalschaden, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn

2005
Linear Logic (with Richard Allen Morris), R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla
Baie vitrée, Galerie Fahnemann, Berlin (s)
La Croix du sud, Galerie de Zaal, Delft (s)
25 Jahre Galerie Fahnemann, Galerie Fahnemann, Berlin

2004
13, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque
Farbfilm, Kunstverein Schloss Plön
Switch, Videonale Bonn

2003
Look both ways before you cross, Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden
Malerei, Galerie Fahnemann, Berlin
Thomas Zitzwitz, Galerie de Zaal, Delft (s)

2002
Thomas Zitzwitz, Fahnemann Projekte, Berlin (s)
Ten young German Artists, Galerie de Zaal, Delft

2001
Stefan Römer, René Zeh, Thomas Zitzwitz, Galerie Kapinos, Berlin
Sommer 2001, Galerie Fahnemann, Berlin
XS, Galerie Fahnemann, Berlin

2000
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Stipendium, Oktogon der Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Stipendium, Kunsthalle/Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Genrepainting, G7, Berlin

1999
Mach’s gut Mensch, Kunstverein Schwerte

1998
L’immagine leggera, Palermo International Video Art Film & Media Festival, Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo
Glut, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
Arte Multi Visione, Comune di Rieti

1997
Odeurs… une odyssée, Passage de Retz, Paris
What’s hot, Baumgartner Galleries, Washington, D.C.
Teresa aus Madrid mit gelbem Kleid, 251 W 92nd St #6D, New York (s)

1996
Situation with Smell and Video, Baumgartner Galleries, Washington, D.C. (s)

1995
Videonale Intermezzo, Kunstmuseum Bonn
Multimediale 4, ZKM Karlsruhe
German Video Art 1992-1994, Blue Box Videoforum Caligari Wiesbaden, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus München, AR/GE Museum-Galerie Bozen, Vorarlberger Kunstverein Bregenz

1994
German Video Art 1992-1994, Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, Museum Folkwang Essen, Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein
Trovare l’immagine, Pinacoteca di Terni
Videonale 6, Kunstverein Bonn

1993
Monitor 93, Konstmuseum Göteborg
Science and Fiction, Berlin Interfilm Festival, Berlin
German Award for Video Art 1993, ZKM Karlsruhe

1992
Laboratorio, Comune di Fossato di Vico

AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

1998–2000
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Stipendium, Bonn

1995–96
Fulbright Scholarship, New York University

1994
Special Commendation, German Video Art 1992–94, Marl

1993
The Top 50, German Award for Video Art 1993, ZKM Karlsruhe