Klaus Ottmann - Quotes

Rather than presupposing genius as an "essential" quality, the genius decision is an activity, which is situated between success and failure — in failing better.
Ottmann, Klaus.

Just as in the delayed action of Wheeler's experiment the observer temporarily "lets go" of the photons, Kierkegaard's reservatio finalis collapses uncertainty into certainty. Just as the letting-go is a stepping back towards faith, the stepping-back from the quantum experiment for a billionth of a second is a step towards certainty.
Ottmann, Klaus.

...the emphasis is on moment. It could only exist in a fraction of time, because there is no such thing as a continuous perfection.
Ottmann, Klaus.

It should be noted, however, that the delayed-choice cannot be called "retroactive causality." It simply proves that not only the future, but the past is undetermined as well. Both past and future consist of probabilities. Similarly, the Nonrepresentable cannot be observed other than as probability. The only certainty is its indetermination. Prior to the implementation of the delayed-choice experiment, quantum physicists were in a similar position as Kierkegaard's "men of movement": Heisenberg's uncertainty principle seems to forever preclude knowledge at the quantum level. With the help of Wheeler's "trick," physicists, for the first time, are able to ascertain certainty by way of a qualitative ethical leap, not unlike Kierkegaard's decisive leap to faith.
Ottmann, Klaus.

I define the postmodern, with respect to art, as a synthesis of irony and ecstasy: the historical process that is generally equated with the concept of nihilism and the end of metaphysics forms a common starting-point for both the modern and the postmodern. While the modern is characterized by nostalgia for lost meaning, the postmodern is marked by irony and an affirmative ecstasy that resembles Nietzsche's "pessimism of strength".
Ottmann, Klaus.

The concepts of the past and future have made way for a permanent present in which all desires become instantaneously fulfilled with the help of the new communication technologies. The task of art then is no longer to invent fictive worlds but to mediate between the audience and these technologies. The artist replaces, or rather, abolishes the cultural elite as a mediating agent.
Ottmann, Klaus.

Much of contemporary sculpture has been newly engaged in a materialist formalism, one that is based in part on a structuralist analysis of the world that attributes ideological meaning to the materials themselves or inscribes linguistic codes onto them, and in part on a participatory humanism—a renewed involvement in the question of being, transcendence, and the social by way of its materiality—a new variant, which I have chosen to refer to as 'spiritual materiality.
Ottmann, Klaus.

This spiritual materialism ranges from art that either reconstructs or simulates, whether reflexive or poetic, "material" in such a way as to manifest thereby its rules or ideological structure, as do Roni Horn's sculptures and photographs; combines an expressed materialism with the goal of changing social praxis, as do the sculptures by Wolfgang Laib and the installations by Felix Gonzales-Torres; or pushes the existential questions of the Human Condition, embedded in the materiality, towards a new extreme subjectivity, as do the works by Marc Quinn and James Lee Byars.
Ottmann, Klaus.

I was able to observe Downes paint onsite in the summer of 2009. He had set himself up on a hidden patch of green way uptown on the West Side of Manhattan. Despite the relative remoteness of the site (the only other people I saw were two construction workers), there were numerous distractions. Cars passed below constantly at brisk speeds; helicopters and planes crossed noisily through the sky above at regular intervals; and there was a noticeable breeze that put the cord anchoring the easel to the test. None of it seemed to bother Downes who was fully absorbed in finishing a small detail of his painting, depicting a section of a wall composed of concrete and granite slabs confined by a wire fence.
Ottmann, Klaus. "Curator Klaus Ottmann on Contemporary Painting Exhibit, Portland Museum, Main." in: Artes Magazine. December 13, 2010.

Downes’s drawings trace out his way of thinking and knowing and getting to know his subjects, and demonstrate an innate relationship between drawing and seeing.
Ottmann, Klaus. "Curator Klaus Ottmann on Contemporary Painting Exhibit, Portland Museum, Main." in: Artes Magazine. December 13, 2010.

Downes’s paintings remind us that looking is not equal to seeing. They invite prolonged examination, in essence, recreating the artist’s own “intelligent” vision, which is as much about knowledge as it is about perception.
Ottmann, Klaus. "Curator Klaus Ottmann on Contemporary Painting Exhibit, Portland Museum, Main." in: Artes Magazine. December 13, 2010.

Downes’s formative years, which lasted from the early 1960s to the early 1970s, were dominated by the emergence of structuralism and minimalism. Structuralism is a philosophical system that looks at the world in terms of its functionality and the rules that describe its parts. Ultimately, it is concerned not with meaning, but with the fabrication of meaning. Minimalism replaces essence in art with presence and place: it relies on the void, the space around it. Minimalist sculpture affects and interacts with the space it occupies, to the extent that the surrounding space becomes an intrinsic part of the work.
Ottmann, Klaus. "Curator Klaus Ottmann on Contemporary Painting Exhibit, Portland Museum, Main." in: Artes Magazine. December 13, 2010.

Both Cole and Downes depict reality, but depart from the conventional representation of space. Downes’s panoramic paintings often display horizon lines with a pronounced curve. They do not correspond to the way horizons are represented by most camera lenses; they also differ from photorealist paintings in this respect. Downes’s paintings are expanded spatially, but condensed in terms of time, not unlike nineteenth-century photographic studio portraits that needed several hours of exposure.
Ottmann, Klaus. "Curator Klaus Ottmann on Contemporary Painting Exhibit, Portland Museum, Main." in: Artes Magazine. December 13, 2010.

With his onsite paintings, Rackstraw Downes has been demonstrating for the past thirty-five years the ever-expanding possibilities of painting. He continues to shape our perception of the world by decisively unfolding it into a world picture, which in the words of the existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger, is “the world conceived and grasped as picture … to the extent that it is set up by man.” Downes’s paintings evince the kind of intelligence that the English poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge once described as consisting of two opposite forces: “… the intelligence in the one tends to objectize itself, and in the other to know itself in the object.”
Ottmann, Klaus. "Curator Klaus Ottmann on Contemporary Painting Exhibit, Portland Museum, Main." in: Artes Magazine. December 13, 2010.

Klein was one of the most radical artists of his time. And in a relatively short period of time, since he died at the early age of 34, he managed to revolutionize painting to the point of its demise, when he uttered the famous words "My paintings are only the ashes of my work," abolish the notion of authorship, by letting his "models" create his works for him, and by foreseeing a new, interdisciplinary art that embraces philosophy, art, architecture, and politics.
Ottmann, Klaus and John Hood (Interviewer). "Nite Talk: Klaus Ottmann Resurrects Yves Klein at Whale & Star." in: NBC Miami. October 4, 2010.

Both artists believed in the transcendental power of art to change the world; both were religious -- Klein was a devout Catholic, Rothko immersed himself in Judaism and Kabbalah; both were intellectually driven and well-read in philosophical ideas.
Ottmann, Klaus and John Hood (Interviewer). "Nite Talk: Klaus Ottmann Resurrects Yves Klein at Whale & Star." in: NBC Miami. October 4, 2010.

My foremost interest has always been in communicating creative ideas. I look forward to enhancing The Phillips Collection's position as a preeminent center for the study and experience of art.
Ottmann, Klaus and John Hood (Interviewer). "Nite Talk: Klaus Ottmann Resurrects Yves Klein at Whale & Star." in: NBC Miami. October 4, 2010.

Some of the world's greatest works of art were never finished by the artist: Michelangelo's Pietà Rondanini, Ingres's Odalisque in Grisaille, Balzac's Comédie humaine, and Mozart's Requiem, among many others. Usually, a work of art remains incomplete when its creator dies. Occasionally, works are abandoned, and more rarely, they are meant to remain in a "unfinished" state.
Ottman, Klaus. "An Unfinished Quality: a Fairfield Porter's Creative Process." in: Traditional Fine Arts Organization. (Originally Published) Resource Library. May 14, 2010.

Most critics and artists looked at figurative paintings in terms of their content; for Porter, it was painting itself that mattered: "What matters is the painting. And since a reference to reality is the easiest thing you just take what's there."Porter painted what was immediately around him because it was the "easiest thing to do." He was interested, above all, in the process of painting. For him, painting was neither an emotional nor an intellectual activity; it was a process that made "the connection between yourself and everything ... you connect yourself to everything which includes yourself."
Ottman, Klaus. "An Unfinished Quality: a Fairfield Porter's Creative Process." in: Traditional Fine Arts Organization. (Originally Published) Resource Library. May 14, 2010.

Porter's painting style may seem at times awkward, artless, abrupt, or unfinished compared to other figurative painters. As William Agee writes, "[Porter] refused to make any concessions to either sentiment or traditional canons of finish or painterly agility . . . . He believed that a painting exists in time and changes in time."
Ottman, Klaus. "An Unfinished Quality: a Fairfield Porter's Creative Process." in: Traditional Fine Arts Organization. (Originally Published) Resource Library. May 14, 2010.

While Porter knew the science behind the art, he never lost sight of the liberties afforded by artistic license ...
Ottman, Klaus. "An Unfinished Quality: a Fairfield Porter's Creative Process." in: Traditional Fine Arts Organization. (Originally Published) Resource Library. May 14, 2010.

I wanted to try to create an environment where the art can speak for itself as much as possible where I would be more in the background. Im still the curator, of course, but I thought that if you have the works without a theme, theres less filtering going on and theres more of a chance for the viewer to see the works on their own terms.
Ottmann, Klaus and João Ribas (Interviewer). "Klaus Ottmann." in: ArtInfo. March 20, 2006.

I've become, in the last two or three years, more and more concerned about this dramatic rise of art fairs and biennials all over the world, which do not provide an adequate way of experiencing art. Im concerned with how they have become the primary place for a lot of people, including curators and critics, to see works for the first time. Thats troubling to me. I have no problem with the economic function of an art fair, but it is problematic when dealers are telling their artists to keep the best works for the art fairs or make works for the art fairs.
Ottmann, Klaus and João Ribas (Interviewer). "Klaus Ottmann." in: ArtInfo. March 20, 2006.

First and foremost, there should be an immediate experience, a sensual experience. Museums are going a little bit too far in the didactics these days. Art education is, of course, important, but its important not to give people the illusion that they could understand a work of art, because works of art can never be completely understood.
Ottmann, Klaus and João Ribas (Interviewer). "Klaus Ottmann." in: ArtInfo. March 20, 2006.

... its not about quantity, its about quality. When you go on a Sunday to the Met, and you see hundreds of people moving from one work to the nextyes, you see a great show, you see 300 paintings, but what did you actually remember afterwards?
Ottmann, Klaus and João Ribas (Interviewer). "Klaus Ottmann." in: ArtInfo. March 20, 2006.

I'm hoping by reducing the works of art so dramatically people will already stop and think, oh, this is weird, and that will make them perhaps look a little differently. There will be very little in terms of didactic materials at Site.
Ottmann, Klaus and João Ribas (Interviewer). "Klaus Ottmann." in: ArtInfo. March 20, 2006.

I am very attracted by works that have a certain spiritual aspect to them. By spiritual, I dont mean, necessarily, religious. Transcendence can be many different things, and transcendence can also have an ethical element in it. Its not about pulling back and trying to find this solipsistic safe space, its not about a kind of New Age thing, either.
Ottmann, Klaus and João Ribas (Interviewer). "Klaus Ottmann." in: ArtInfo. March 20, 2006.

What Im talking about is a work that is spiritual, but spiritual through materials, through the materialism. Roland Barthes talked about the responsibility of forms, about how forms and how materials, can have an ideology, can have an ethical impact, an imperative. I believe strongly that all art is political in one way or another, and Wolfgang Laib has said that he wants his work to change the world, so thats very political, too. They can be political without having political slogans written on them.
Ottmann, Klaus and João Ribas (Interviewer). "Klaus Ottmann." in: ArtInfo. March 20, 2006.

The link is alchemy ... Alchemy is about the transmutation of base metals, like lead, into gold, but ultimately its like the Holy Grail, it is also a spiritual journey to become a better person and to reach a higher level spiritually ... The gold was always, for him, a symbol of this transmutation, of this quest.
Ottmann, Klaus and João Ribas (Interviewer). "Klaus Ottmann." in: ArtInfo. March 20, 2006.

I also intend to kind of change the idea of Byars being this kind of outrageous dandy. I mean, he got a little nutty by the end of his life, but he was just a very outrageous person. I was a friend of his and it was sometimes a little overwhelming but usually very entertaining. He was an extremely interesting guy.
Ottmann, Klaus and João Ribas (Interviewer). "Klaus Ottmann." in: ArtInfo. March 20, 2006.

The Cartesian body/mind split as a schizophrenic condition was first described by the Geman judge Daniel Paul Schreber who began psychiatric treatment in 1884 and whose published account of his own illness was later used by Freud in his Psycho-Analytical Notes Upon an Autobiographical Case on Paranoia. Schreber suffered from a distorted body image that made him believe, among other things, that his stomach and his intestines had disappeared. Later, in their critique of Capitalism, Anti-Oedipus, Félix Guttari and Gilles Deluze speculated that the schizophrenic “body without organs” may be a product of Capitalism.
Ottman, Klaus. "Tony Bevan: Painting Heads." in: Official Tony Bevan Website. 2005.

The schizophrenic “body without organs” has a parallel in art history in the changes that emerged in the pictorial order at the beginning of the Renaissance. The pre-Renaissance (Trecento), Italo-Byzantine paintings of Duccio di Buoninsegna surpassed Byazntine art in their illusionism and naturalism and were characterized by delicacy and fluidity of form. Duccio’s overall compositions were visual dialogues between representation and void, figure and space, solid and fluid; between form – the silhouettes of the figures in the “foreground” – and formlessness: the shimmering gold plane in what the modern viewer perceives as the “background”.
Ottman, Klaus. "Tony Bevan: Painting Heads." in: Official Tony Bevan Website. 2005.

Renaissance painting relegated the “formless” gold plane of Trecento painting to a background understood as secondary, and ultimately replaced the intuitive “lived” perspective of Trecento painting with invented landscapes constructed in linear perspectiva artificialis, devised by the architect Fillippo Brunlleschi and first applied by the painter Masaccio.
Ottman, Klaus. "Tony Bevan: Painting Heads." in: Official Tony Bevan Website. 2005.

Furthermore, Bevan does not paint faces. A face is an exterior structure, much like the façade of a building. Like Bevan’s paintings of deconstructed roof spaces and, most recently, of stacked studio furniture and tableaux of aggregate objects in his studio, his heads are internal, architectural structures.
Ottman, Klaus. "Tony Bevan: Painting Heads." in: Official Tony Bevan Website. 2005.

Unlike his peers, Bevan paints himself exclusively, and most frequently, and rather persistently, his own head is the preferred subject.
Ottman, Klaus. "Tony Bevan: Painting Heads." in: Official Tony Bevan Website. 2005.

The extraordinary abstract-expressionist paintings of Mark Rothko, on the other hand, may serve as examples of creative achievements that cannot be explained by physical or accidental genius alone. Rothko, like Evans, is one of the most celebrated American artists of the past century. He was extremely well-read; yet, few books influenced him as much as Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, which led him to eventually abandon figuration in favor of abstraction. Nietzsche was a natural match for Rothko, whose passion for music and fascination with the theater met with Nietzsche's belief in the restorative power of Richard Wagner's musical drama. In music, a sound evokes emotion at the very moment of its execution. Afterwards only absence remains. Nietzsche regards this as the core of tragedy. It was exactly what Rothko was after in his paintings.
Ottmann, Klaus. The Genius Decision: The Extraordinary and the Postmodern Condition. Dissertation. European Graduate School. 2002.

Rothko's monumental abstractions of ethereal fields of colors are unparalleled in Western art. He created his own rules: combining red and yellow didn't necessarily make orange. His paintings—their colors, emotions, sense of mystery, and meaning—cannot be adequately described in words: each is larger than the sum of its parts. Rothko regarded his canvases primarily as ethical statements. Guided by Nietzsche, he saw himself fundamentally as a moral artist, wishing to convey hope and faith in the good of human existence but, not unlike religion, also reflecting universal human conflicts. Little understood at the time, Rothko's works were labeled by critics and art historians either as "action" paintings or as "color-fields." Neither description was acceptable to Rothko who considered his floating color rectangles "objects," "actors" in an emotional drama playing out universal human tensions on his canvases.
Ottmann, Klaus. The Genius Decision: The Extraordinary and the Postmodern Condition. Dissertation. European Graduate School. 2002.

Byars is known for creating works that are extreme in their formal simplicity, yet exceedingly luxurious in the choice of materials: marble, gold, black or red silk, and glass. Living in Japan during his formative years, Byars developed his unique style by adopting the highly sensual and symbolic practices of Japanese Noh theater and wedding them with Western conceptual and minimalist art and analytical philosophy. Byars's objects are a reflection of his lifelong pursuit of the transient nature of beauty and perfection, which operates on both a perceptual and conceptual level, affecting the viewer in a very physical experience of a concept that is abstract in nature. He saw death as symbolic of perfection—at once attainable and elusive.
Ottmann, Klaus. The Genius Decision: The Extraordinary and the Postmodern Condition. Dissertation. European Graduate School. 2002.

As in Kafka's story, for Byars, simply being an artist is a metaphor for death and failure.
Ottmann, Klaus. The Genius Decision: The Extraordinary and the Postmodern Condition. Dissertation. European Graduate School. 2002.

Working primarily in geological sites, such as quarries, with heavy machinery that disrupted the earth's crust, Smithson deterritorialized art by claiming geological "sites" as physically and historical extensions of artistic activity beyond the traditional studio. Collecting pieces of slate and mica taken from these sites and displaying them in austere minimalist containers in museums or galleries as "non-sites," he introduced the realm of the Abject into sculpture ... The Abject is the ambiguous; it lies "in-between," "between Inside and Outside." It straddles the Imaginary and the Symbolic.
Ottmann, Klaus. The Genius Decision: The Extraordinary and the Postmodern Condition. Dissertation. European Graduate School. 2002.