On the Fortaleza body of work
In his painting, Steffen Pascal Meister recapitulates contrasting sensations that mirror the differences and oppositions between the Ruhr area and Fortaleza, Brazil. He does not describe these experiences concretely like a travel diary. Others can write about Brazil.
NO! — He paints.
He paints and confronts us with the sensations of what he has experienced. He transforms contrasts into an abstract, virtuoso visual language without smoothing them over. Colours dissolve and surrender to chance; they drift and hover through the pictorial space.
Against this he arranges geometric, often polygonal structures that strictly organize themselves within material exposed to chance and chaos. A play of chaos and order. Rhythmic, virtuoso gestures contrast with spontaneous, seemingly accidental brush movements.
The pictorial space is inseparably interwoven. Back and front, above and below happen at the same time. At times impressions of landscape emerge; at times the artist flirts with motifs such as palms or trees, only to lead us onto a path that is both right and wrong.
The tension of opposites is a guiding idea in his art. In the working process he becomes both observer and actor, watching diluted acrylic paint search for form after being poured, adding pigments, binder and shellac, and observing how the material changes.
Sometimes colour attracts, sometimes it repels. Sometimes he enters the still-wet material, sometimes he reworks it after drying. Sometimes he masks areas precisely and sets organic forms and accidents against these clear spaces. Opposites. Tension.
“I need a field of tension, in life as in art.”
Asked why he works this way, he gave this brief and clear answer. And that is good. Few painters celebrate the union of opposites in their work as he does. He brings the irreconcilable into a simultaneity that transforms contradiction into an encompassing harmony.
His art is not political, nor has it fallen victim to a cliché of our time. It is more than that: timeless and, in a special and elevated way, highly relevant to society. His work builds bridges and unites what seems incompatible.
“Because a painting does not need a title; the title arises in the viewer, in their sensations. The viewer’s sensation is more important to me and makes the title unnecessary.”
This was his answer to the question of why he does not use titles. Omitting the title opens not a space of interpretation, but one of de-interpretation: a strategy that throws us back into a here and now felt in contact with the painting.
Would the world not be more beautiful if all people met one another on the balance of his art? Steffen Pascal Meister’s paintings testify to the human ability to visualize emotional and mental spaces that stand diametrically opposed and yet become a harmonious whole.