Cornelia Schleime
"Summer Guests"
Artist
Cornelia Schleime
1953 Berlin
Provenance
Galerie Supper, Baden-Baden;
Private collection, Baden-Baden, acquired from the aforementioned gallery.
Private collection, Baden-Baden, acquired from the aforementioned gallery.
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Description
• Decoratively appealing painting in cheerful colours, paired with subtle tension
• A characteristic feature of Schleime’s works is her interplay with surface and depth
• Cornelia Schleime is one of the most exciting artists of her generation, represented in numerous collections both nationally and internationally
Cornelia Schleime was born in East Berlin in 1953 and is today regarded as one of the most exciting artists of her generation. Her work is characterised by a strong will to assert herself: In the GDR, she was monitored and banned from exhibiting – experiences that continue to shape her visual language to this day. After moving to the West in 1984, she further developed her distinctive style and achieved international success. In ‘Summer Guests’, we encounter an elegant female figure in profile wearing a wide-brimmed sun hat – almost like a scene from an endless summer’s day. The depiction is clearly based on a photograph of Angelina Jolie. The warm, vibrant colours and the impasto application lend the painting a special luminosity and presence. At the same time, the surroundings seem less like a real landscape and more like a decorative, slightly ethereal space.
It is precisely this blend that makes the work so compelling: At first glance, it is cheerful and stylish, almost sophisticated, yet it carries a subtle sense of unease. The figure seems both approachable and unapproachable, as if she were deliberately eluding a clear interpretation.
This interplay between surface and depth is typical of Schleime. Behind the apparent lightness lies an artist who engages intensively with identity, role and self-presentation – themes that also become understandable in the light of her eventful life story. ‘Summer Guests’ is thus not only an atmospherically dense, decoratively appealing painting, but also a work imbued with subtle tension – and that is precisely what gives it its special appeal.
• A characteristic feature of Schleime’s works is her interplay with surface and depth
• Cornelia Schleime is one of the most exciting artists of her generation, represented in numerous collections both nationally and internationally
Cornelia Schleime was born in East Berlin in 1953 and is today regarded as one of the most exciting artists of her generation. Her work is characterised by a strong will to assert herself: In the GDR, she was monitored and banned from exhibiting – experiences that continue to shape her visual language to this day. After moving to the West in 1984, she further developed her distinctive style and achieved international success. In ‘Summer Guests’, we encounter an elegant female figure in profile wearing a wide-brimmed sun hat – almost like a scene from an endless summer’s day. The depiction is clearly based on a photograph of Angelina Jolie. The warm, vibrant colours and the impasto application lend the painting a special luminosity and presence. At the same time, the surroundings seem less like a real landscape and more like a decorative, slightly ethereal space.
It is precisely this blend that makes the work so compelling: At first glance, it is cheerful and stylish, almost sophisticated, yet it carries a subtle sense of unease. The figure seems both approachable and unapproachable, as if she were deliberately eluding a clear interpretation.
This interplay between surface and depth is typical of Schleime. Behind the apparent lightness lies an artist who engages intensively with identity, role and self-presentation – themes that also become understandable in the light of her eventful life story. ‘Summer Guests’ is thus not only an atmospherically dense, decoratively appealing painting, but also a work imbued with subtle tension – and that is precisely what gives it its special appeal.