Pascal Koertel – winner of the Straubing 2023 Cultural Promotion Prize

Pascal Koertel has been studying painting and graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Professor Gregor Hildebrandt’s class since 2020. He is one of two winners of the Straubing Cultural Promotion Prize, which is awarded by the Dr. Franz and Astrid Ritter Foundation for Fine Arts. Restauro met him for an interview.

JMK: Congratulations on winning the Straubing Culture Prize! Has the prize money of €3,000 already been spent?

PK: Thank you very much! The money hasn’t been spent yet, but it is planned. I would like to use it to produce a series of three works that I want to paint exclusively with lapis lazuli. I just want to experiment with this great material.

I have discovered for myself that I find shapes and shadows much more exciting than concrete, elaborate motifs. Haute couture and haute couture photo shoots are an important source of inspiration for me because I find the silhouettes particularly exciting. I also want to create large-format works.

JMK: So it’s a very sensible investment in future works and not in haute couture, for example?

PK: No, I always reinvest.

JMK: You’ve already mentioned it: you often use expensive materials such as lapis lazuli and make your own colors from the pigments. Why do you go to such lengths and not just buy ready-made tube colors?

PK: There are two reasons: Firstly, I want to honor the old masters, and secondly, I definitely used tube paint at the beginning of my studies, but was never satisfied with the result. I then went to Dr. Kathrin Kinseher, the head of the painting technique workshop at the Munich Academy, and told her that the colors didn’t have the brilliance I was looking for. The colors always looked a little “dirty”. She then explained to me that some of the pigments in the tube paints are not compatible with each other. A good example is titanium white, which often contains other substances. But I want the pure titanium white. So I make it myself to get the pure pigment. For me, added substances always change the color, which I notice and which bothers me.

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JMK: You also make your canvases yourself, which means you stretch them onto a stretcher frame yourself. That’s also very time-consuming, you could also buy them.

PK: I’m a material fetishist. Prefabricated canvases don’t have the fabric quality I want. I use a special fabric from France that is particularly fine but still very thick. This is also very important to me with clothing, I really like firmer and thicker fabrics and this is where fashion and art come together again in my work. The feel of the canvases is simply important to me; they have to feel right to me.

JMK: You mentioned the haptic quality, which is something you’re familiar with from museums, that you shouldn’t touch works of art. Can the viewer see or recognize the special feel or the structure of the canvas?

PK: I always invite people to touch the work if they are interested in how I work. I also work a lot with copper or porcelain as a support material in my art and have developed a process that makes porcelain less brittle. I think it’s very important that people can touch it, because they are usually surprised at how it feels. I’m a very tactile person myself and I like to feel fabrics when I’m making clothes or buying fabric for canvases. I’m always very touchy.

JMK: I can totally understand that, you can also tell the fabric qualities: not all silk is the same and not all cotton is the same.

PK: Exactly, and I usually cover my work with a resin or varnish. So it’s not so bad if it gets touched on the side. At my exhibition in Straubing, for example, I have two works hanging that are made with organic material that will never dry. I poured a very thick layer of epoxy resin over it and it has a really cool feel. People always get really close to it and when I notice that people want to touch it, I go up to them and tell them that they are welcome to do so. That’s part of it for me. I want my art to appeal to different senses, which is why I often make music installations or play with scents. It is also important to me how the space in which my art is presented is designed. I always keep that in mind. Last January, for example, I wrapped an entire room in 3,000 disinfectant wipes with an artist friend, Sandro Prodanovic, which we glued, sewed and stapled together. It is simply important to me that you can immerse yourself in my art and that all your senses are engaged.

JMK: Of course, it’s also very exciting that you work together with other artists …

PK: I always enjoy doing collaborations. Perhaps I’ve picked that up a little from the fashion industry. It’s simply exciting when you get involved with another artist and then get into an exchange not only verbally, but also in the work process.

JMK: How should I imagine your working process? You just said that you cover the canvases yourself, you make the colors …

PK: I actually do everything myself, I hardly ever buy anything ready-made. I’m so obsessed with materials that I always want to know what something is made of. That’s also advice I give to first semester students: Get to grips with the material! If you know what you can do with which material, you work in a completely different way.

JMK: And what happens next? Do you prepare the materials and the canvas and then make preliminary studies? Or do you paint directly onto the canvas?

PK: It varies a lot. Sometimes it starts with a study, but I can like it so much that I leave it at that. But this study can still serve to make a painting. Although I pay very close attention to the ground, I rarely actually make preliminary sketches. I often paint freehand, because sketches often give me the feeling of being constricted. I also don’t make a grid on the canvas.

JMK: I recently read something about a painter whose painting was examined more closely with X-rays. It was discovered that he had made changes during the work process. Could something similar be found in your work?

PK: I also make a certain preliminary sketch, but I do it so that I can use it within the work to make the background look a bit dirtier. I usually do the sketching with graphite or charcoal, which I make myself. I burn willow wood for this. I then spread and dilute this black pigment with oil directly on the canvas. In combination with the bright colors that I then apply, I have a completely different effect.

JMK: Where do your ideas come from?

PK: I often come up with motifs when I go for a walk. Then I might see a relief or window that I really like. I then pick that up. But also stories that people tell me.

JMK: Are there also artists who influence you? I know from your work that the motif of a blue horse crops up frequently. We’re sitting here in Munich, so I quickly think of Franz Marc and his blue horses …

PK: Franz Marc has to do with the fact that I used to go to the museums in Munich quite often with my grandma and my mom, and the Lenbachhaus was often there. I had the “Blue Horse I” hanging as a poster above my bed. Of course, that left a lasting impression. Apart from that, I like Basquiat’s work, you can see that in my paintings too. I also have a few favorite artists, most of whom are no longer alive, but who generally have no influence on my work. Francis Bacon or Louise Bourgeois, for example. I’m not an installation artist, I’m currently doing pure flatware, i.e. painting. But I find cages and spaces very exciting, and I’m particularly interested in the dark and abstruse. I then incorporate the input I get there into my works and translate it into painting.

JMK: You can see that very clearly in your works. They are quite dark motifs, such as skulls.

PK: Vanitas motifs are definitely part of my work. But depressive moods also appear. I worked with borderline patients for a while, which resulted in very dark works. But that was too much of a burden for me in the long run, so I didn’t continue.

JMK: You also said that you take your lead from the old masters, at least in the material production process.

PK: I’m a bit conflicted about that now. I used to love visiting museums like the Louvre or the Alte Pinakothek here in Munich, but at the moment I can no longer see the works exhibited there in the same way. I’ve had my fill of them, so to speak. But their craftsmanship impresses me. They still did everything themselves because tube paints, for example, didn’t even exist yet. I find this dedication impressive. Many artists no longer go to that effort today. But once you start making the materials yourself, you don’t want to use anything else.

JMK: What are you working on at the moment, what are you working on?

PK: At the moment I’m preparing an exhibition in Paris, in the Marais. I’m very happy about that because I really like this area of Paris, it’s one of my favorite neighborhoods. The next work on paintings will be my homage to haute couture, which we talked about at the beginning. The designer Martin Margiela in particular serves as my inspiration. I find his deconstructed designs super exciting. The extravagant shapes he has created influence me. I am particularly interested in playing with shapes, as this allows viewers to develop their own stories about the work. This was also important to me in the Straubing exhibition, hence the title “Somewhere between them and us”. I am fascinated by the space between the artwork and the viewer that opens up, which is empty at first. As a viewer, you can then fill it with your emotions, your perceptions, your memories and perhaps even start dreaming. That’s how I feel about works by Chagall, they always catch me. A few of his things also resonate in my art.

JMK: What are your upcoming exhibitions? Where else can I see you apart from Straubing and Paris?

PK: There will probably be another exhibition in Milan, and in May we have another class exhibition here in Munich at the Academy of Fine Arts.

JMK: Final question: do you have an exhibition tip?

PK: Definitely the Kafka exhibition at the Villa Stuck. It won’t be on for much longer, but it’s very good. Then I would like to see the Mark Rothko exhibition in Paris at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. In the Tate London, the Expressionist exhibition with the loans from the Lenbachhaus and then in Munich in the Kunsthalle the exhibition about the designers Viktor & Rolf. There’s a lot more, I have a whole list.

2024

“Somewhere Between Them And Us” (Straubing)

2023

“MEIN TRÜBES WASSER WURDE KLAR” (Berlin)

“daslebendegefühl” (Munich)

“Getreidegasse 24” (Salzburg)

2022

“MINDS ARE MAGNETS” (New York)