Sebastian LUDWIG - Squarewave

Press release

Galerie Richard is pleased to announce the performance of artist Sebastian Ludwig and the exhibition of his new works from October 19 to December 22, 2018.
Sebastian Ludwig is not a prolific painter. He takes the time necessary to elaborate works that have a density of visual wills for future generations on our contemporary era. His paintings already seem to possess this patina, this effect of progressive erasure peculiar to paintings of a very ancient time. His visual references are in paintings and engravings of the Middle Ages and Romantic painters.

His perfectly static representations seem both familiar and enigmatic. His new paintings show aerial views of undetermined cities. The buildings are reduced to geometric volumes. No living being is visible. The geometry of urban planning suffices to attest to the human presence, just as the chaotic luxuriance of the vegetal space suffices to define it. The paintings are close to monochrome; the colour is faded.

Moreover the support of the painting also alters the figuration. On a photographic reproduction it is thought that the artist chose a canvas with a textile weft in relief. The canvas seems to be woven in relief of vertical and horizontal lines cutting into hollows of squares that could be assimilated to pixels.
In fact, Sebastian Ludwig starts by creating this square weft pattern with paint. He starts by putting an adhesive paper on the canvas. Meticulously he paints the weft with several thicknesses of acrylic and pigments. After cutting and removing the tape from the squares, he begins painting each of the squares.