Thitz is a German artist whose works are well known and in high demand worldwide. THITZ storage is empty since years - because all new works are exhibited or sold. As part of his unique "Bag Art Paintings", THITZ uses paper bags as material on the canvas and as well as for communication. His works are absolutely unique, colorful, sometimes strange or bizarre, intriguing and have a richness of detail that makes it possible to discover things in the pictures even years later. Thitz works in the tradition of Pop Art; he develops it further, intensifies it, and integrates the poles of everyday reality, art, life and their sensorial experience into a new form of art. Thitz produced his first bag picture in 1985, more than 30 years ago, when he was studying under the great informal master K.R.H. Sonderborg at the Stuttgart State Academy of the Visual Arts. The fact that Thitz uses bags as a surface for his pictures is no accident but an integral element of his concept. The handle applications of the bags loop out over the edge of the picture. They breach the sharp linear contours of the picture and evoke associations – the picture as bag and the picture over and beyond what is depicted as a receptacle for content.
We discovered Thitz's art at the LA Art Show in 2022 and were intrigued, not only by his oddly charming differently colored shoes, one of his trademarks. In his interview, the artist tells us about his special "Bag Art" technique, the two levels of perception embedded In his artwork, and his use of recycled materials. Thitz also introduces us to the power of advertisements in the Western world, largely influenced by U.S. culture, and to the multiple layers of his work. Thitz shares his " artistic vision of a peaceful and sustainable world". While Thitz has exhibited his art all over the world, he remains in his homebase in Stuttgart, Germany.
Art currently on view at Artplex Gallery in Los Angeles
You are known for your "Bag Art". Can you explain the idea behind your technique to our readers? How did you come up with this idea of creating a layered art product, both in terms of reusable materials and meaning?
Basically, during my studies I already had the idea that as an artist I have to follow my own personal idea as precisely as possible and accordingly develop my own personal techniques. The reason is simple: there are no two identical people in the world! So, if you follow your own ideas precisely, something new and previously unknown automatically emerges. A nice effect is also that you don't have to pretend or adapt and therefore you always have fun at work! Already during the development, I tried all kinds of objects, which I glued on the canvas to then paint on it. These were exclusively recycled, that is, found objects, from the garbage or even used things by myself, such as bags, books, newspapers, circuit boards, ropes ... a special inspiration came from those objects that revealed the history of a former owner or its cultural origin. In the end, while searching for my own technique and style, it turned out that bags were the best fit for me. They have a visible and often readable surface, which tells something about the cultural environment from which they come. In addition, they have a hidden interior, a content that cannot be seen from the outside, which thus promises a discovery, a mystery. To connect these two levels of perception and to bring them into an artistic form has always been my concern.
You received art education both in Germany, and Spain. How have the different influences shaped you and your artistic expression to this day?
First, I learned that people in different cultures also perceive art with different eyes. For me, this created the opportunity to implement those skills and ideas preferentially, which were more at home in the respective culture. During the many journeys I made during my studies, I tried to transport back the respective cultural views as a kind of reporter, in the form of my watercolor studies. This resulted in tens of thousands of watercolor studies, on the trips I have painted virtually permanently, even on the bus, train or on a traffic island.
How do you translate your view of the world into visual images on paper bags?
If I want to paint a new motif, for example, a view of New York, I look for the watercolor studies and of course the bags from my last trips there and first begin to imagine from which point of view I want to tell the picture. That could mean to put myself in another person's shoes from the other culture or even from the city I want to paint and tell the picture from their point of view, but naturally with my own style. The bags are thereby inspiration, can awaken memories of previous trips there. These bags can also trigger the same in the viewer. The picture grows slowly. The first brushstrokes are with little paint practically with dirty water. So gradually the color becomes stronger and the instruments become finer. From the large brush to the small brush to the reed pen and in the end the ink drawing as the finest instrument. In the Utopian Civilizations pictures, even the ink is still used diluted in five stages.
You document transient, yet repeating moments of everyday life, often defined by distractions through advertisements in cities. In your opinion – apart from the material you use, what is special about your urban scenes and what distinguishes your style from other artists?
I was as a teenager on the East Berlin side while the wall in Berlin still stood, when I came back to West Berlin, I saw the advertising and the many colorful lights with completely different eyes. There was simply nothing like that in East Berlin! Until then, I always found advertising pretentious and unpleasant, annoying. But at that moment I understood that these colorful lights are part of our liberal culture, which has always been influenced by American culture, specially in West Berlin. The billboards no longer seemed so pretentious to me, and I understood them more as an invitation. The decision to paint cities came about during my scholarship in Barcelona. Until then I had only painted landscapes, I often walked for hours out of the cities and then painted my watercolors in the countryside in the middle of nature. In Barcelona I noticed the similarities, we humans are also part of nature. I began to deal with this part of nature. But since my first daughter was born, I have become a real fan of people. My style is as different from any other artistic style as the people who implement their style are different from each other. My approach has never been to submit stylistically to a particular fashion or current, yet there are of course influences from everyday life, and also from the art scene that influence my own living space and thus my artistic style. I notice some similarities with Pop Art, Andy Warhol but am also a fan of a lot of different people like Obama, the artist Rauschenberg, the musician Amina Claudine Meyers and the philosopher David Hume.
Your Bag Art consists of both silkscreen printing and painting. How do methodology, color, subjects, and materials work together in your artwork? Have you made changes to your style or method over the years? Why/why not?
The Bag Art actually consists only of canvases, bags and acrylic paint. Silkscreen, I use specially for the editions, which are originally made for the same reason as Andy Warhol originated - simply to be able to make my art accessible to poorer people. The paintings have actually evolved significantly over the years. Whenever I reach a certain quality, I immediately start looking for the next opportunity to improve. Thus, 15 years ago I completely changed the painting from previously opaque painting to lazure technique. This opened up the possibility of details and stories much finer and more complex to tell. However, this painting on acrylic paint basis is extremely complicated, especially because I paint with liquid colors on horizontal canvases and with both hands at the same time. Also, there are often long drying times, during which the paintings look terrible. Only the knowledge that this condition is necessary to achieve a maximum quality then allows me to keep painting. My ambition is always to be able to represent as much information or multi-layered levels in the paintings as possible. More is always better! So, the works over the years became more and more multilayered and more detailed.
You've exhibited your work internationally and have worked with different artists and in different cities over the course of your career. What have you learned from these experiences and has your work been received differently in different countries?
In fact, I have already worked and exhibited in over 30 countries. Interestingly, I have apparently managed to find a kind of global cipher that is understood everywhere. Possibly, the one has also only emerged through the other, I mean many trips have simply imprinted a global world view, which is then stylistically reflected in the works. In fact, depending on the culture, certain information or levels of the images are perceived differently. For example, I noticed in the Asian region that people perceive the surface of the information (bags, city views, faces) equally important as, for example, hidden messages, philosophical connotations, or associatively generated impressions. These are things that we in Europe usually discover consciously only at second glance.
We find yourself as a painted subject in many of your art products. In your opinion – what is the role of both the artist and art in our current state of the world? Can art provide healing, or does it disguise and distract from reality?
The more unique and whimsical my works became, the more I found it necessary to let myself appear there as a character. Simply to also show that one stands to it and that I live in this world also myself. Artist is one of the few still free professions of our time! I think we have thereby even the duty to show the reality and to contribute to the healing of unfreedom, injustice or discord. My task, as I see it, for example, is to create visions of a better world. These visions are all the more important in a society where everyone actually already has everything he needs but can no longer imagine how it should be even better. But if this culture of prosperity is based on the exploitation of the resources of the planet or even on the backs of poorer people in other parts of the world, there are very well visions of how to improve our world and culture still. I paint this world in which everything is as it should be, people live together peacefully and in harmony with nature, without wars and without any external differences among people causing problems. If we have a better world in front of our eyes, a painting which visualizes a dream of it, we are more likely to succeed in realizing it.
What is the collection or specific artwork you've created within your career span of over forty years that you're most proud of and why?
In the meantime, a large number of museums but also private collectors have bought my works and integrated them into their collection. This makes me very happy, of course, because this creates the opportunity for all people to view my works once in the museum. But it also makes me a little proud that there are hardly any paintings of mine that are sold again. So, the paintings are somehow sustainable enough and give inspiration and positive energy to the people who bought them, also after many years. They want to keep them even if the value of the paintings is increasing. But I also always enjoy the Bag Art Global project I organize mainly during my museum exhibitions worldwide. The people of the city are asked to send me their idea of an artistically designed bag. Out of these I then created an installation that was exhibited in the museum in a prominent place, and the results were usually overwhelming! Here, too, it has been shown that one can reach people very well if you ask them a question that can be answered really openly and freely. What is your idea of BAG ART?
Have you ever carried around any of your finished bag products and "recycled' art by reusing the bags as an everyday product? If your art is purchased by private collectors, where do you hope to see it exhibited? Would you encourage your buyers to re-use your art as shopping bags?
Especially with the Bag Art Global projects, of course it often happens that the project becomes an issue in a city, and people look at their shopping bags with completely different eyes. They work on them and paint them or speak a poem in them before they hand them to me. By using these bags for an artistic installation in the museum, they are recycled again. Afterwards, the people get their designed bag back, and the bags are recycled again. Most then hang their bag framed, and together we have created a quadruple recycled work of art. Of course, the finished canvas works can no longer be used for transportation of goods. However, the images indirectly transport the cultural time spirit and my artistic vision of a peaceful and sustainable world.
You told me about an upcoming exhibit at a gallery in L.A.; a byproduct of your exhibit at The LA ART SHOW 2022. What do you hope to gain from this collaboration and what are your plans for the future?
At this year's one artist show with Neue Kunst Gallery at LA ART SHOW 2022, it turned out that there will be a collaboration with Artplex Gallery at 7377 Beverly Boulevard in Hollywood. The paintings are already on display there and there will certainly be a solo show as well. I am very happy that I now have a gallery representation in the USA again, besides Korea and many galleries in Europe. For the future I wish you all health and a quick end of Putin's war and of course that all my visions for a positive future come true.
Copyright 2022/ Art Squat / artsquatmagazine@gmail.com
Follow the Line ...
Or: How to get a grip on the Eiffel Tower
A delicate young girl with big blue eyes in an orange dress is holding up the landmark of the French capital in her right hand as if she wanted to juggle with the Eiffel Tower. The tower itself is chock-a-block full of visitors peeking out of all the openings in the steel colossus. This is unusual enough, but there's more to come: the tip of the tower spins out finely into the delicate handle of a paper bag, as if the tip of the Eiffel Tower doesn’t want to end but mutate into something new.
We are looking at a work by the painter and drawer Thitz, who has gained fame with his bag art. From the very outset, his oeuvre has been inconceivable with the practical paper receptacles. Bags, symbolized by handles, serve as surfaces for painting or as element for collages; printed with writing or images, they are a source of inspiration for the artist and sounding board for his design.
The bag gives Thitz an authentic symbol for his message in his quest for a global visual language reflecting the past and present of mankind on our planet. For a long time, the artist made use of the advertising messages on bags. He exploited and varied them for his own word creations, not infrequently with Dadaist alienation. One of the early explanations still holds good: there are bags throughout the world, from Europe to Asia, from Africa to America. And everywhere in the world they serve the purpose of transporting goods from one place to another, a genuine symbol of a globalized society. Also worldwide is a phenomenon that can assume almost philosophical dimensions: not infrequently, the bag can lose the original unity of external form and content. A small bag whose label promises value can easily contain something completely banal off a supermarket shelf, whereas the banal bag from a discount store may be conveying valuable documents or a treasured diamond ring. Nothing is what it seems to be: a universal insight.
For the world of Thitz, the bag is the born motif; it is a symbol of globalization and globalization itself.
For many years, the artist has been mounting a fascinating view of the world with his bags. His pictures have been repeatedly described and placed in the context of historical cityscapes. A close look shows how unequalled his painterly force, his vital narrative language are.
Thitz is a marvellous storyteller, but we should not be deceived by the seemingly decorative weave of colourful motifs and narratives. The message of these images, like the bags, is ambivalent. Behind them looms the other, the second level, to be penetrated only by the attentive observer.
Over and again, Thitz seeks to build this level into his pictures with the medium of photography. Like the seemingly determinate object bag, the photograph is an attempt to bring a supposedly objective image into one's own world. The photos often have the effect of postcards, of greetings from afar collaged into visual messages. Painted over and alienated, they form another narrative level with which the artist plays.
The paintings and collages that constitute the world of Thitz are a homage to the variety and diversity of the world. Wherever Thitz is, his visual language reflects an optimistic view of the world that is very much his own. It is, however, not to be mistaken for a naive answer to the questions of our times. For all the cheerfulness of his figures and buildings we find – not apparent at first glance – the sad eyes, the questioning figures who, isolated in their world, are begrudged a share in globalized consumption. The Fifth Avenue bag perhaps serves the Syrian refugee setting out on his long journey to Europe to carry his last belongings.
The artist translates this ambivalence of our reality directly into his painting. With all the colours, movement, stories, it is easy to overlook that Thitz also works with watercolours. His quiet and concentrated watercolours, done during his travels, show a very individual handwriting. Watercolours suit Thitz's speedy technique. Swift thought and narrative flow directly into brush, onto paper.
These works on paper, in particular, show that Thitz is not exclusively concerned with the representational. Apart from everything they narrate, there are also colourful explosions, abstract colour stories depicting the entire emotional universe of the artist and not infrequently the genius loci. Often dashed off with great verve, they show the self-assurance with which Thitz composes his view of the world. His line is always ready to abandon its descriptive task. It entangles itself, sets out on its own to arrive in the contour of a lamp, a face, or the Eiffel Tower.
This shows how very much Thitz secures his painting with the aid of line and drawing. The line is the real narrator in these pictures. We follow it from face to face, from one building to the next.
Especially in the new city pictures we see how drawing has become increasingly important, urban landscapes in which webs of lines condense into treetops. The flâneur might be reminded of some scene or other in autumnal Berlin or London when winter avenues are canopied by bare tree branches, finally revealing the buildings behind. Here, too, the second look that Thitz challenges is that behind the scenes: it is essential if we wish to see the world through the eyes of the painter and drawer Thitz. It is like a veil that he lays over the urban fabric, a curtain that begs to be opened.
The world of Thitz is a ludic world, full of surprises, full of unusual perspectives, obeying only the imagination of the artist. Cars fly, building bend; this world explodes in colour, far distant from the grey streets of the metropolis. He makes it easy for us to follow him, to tread the streets and cityscapes. The artist takes us by the hand; he sets us riddles and draws a world for us that we would love to believe in.
It is therefore easy for us to grab the Eiffel Tower by the handle and stroll with the bag through Paris or New York, perhaps carrying a bit of this view of the world around with us, with all the hope it radiates.
Thitz is in enamoured of this world, of its diversity, its variety and delicacy; he has an unquenchable thirst for the life inherent in this world. But it is a world that can become a trap if we give ourselves to it without a critical eye. If, however, we comprehend it as a whole, in its complexity, and if we try to see through the levels, these images with their faith in the future are more significant today than ever before.
Dr. Stephan Mann Director Museum Goch
Bags are the mark of Thitz's art. Thitz uses them not only in their usual capacity as receptacles; in their multiple and comprehensive meaning he uses them as integral coordinates in the system of his global art. “Tüte” is the word In Thitz's native tongue German for “bag” in his sense: a thin, pliable receptacle made of paper, plastic, or other flexible material to contain and transport groceries, small loose objects, and materials in powder form. Since the twentieth century, such “Tüten” have been the key utensil in retailing and consumption. The word comes from the Middle Low German “Tute.” In modern German “Tute” also refers, like the English “tooter,” to anything like a horn that produces loud sounds. The verb “tuten,” English “toot” belongs to the same semantic field. Cornets (“horns”!), or conical bags (“Spitztüten”) are among mankind's oldest receptacles: they are easily made without tools from large leaves or skins. Thitz generally uses block-bottom bags, which do not end in a point but form box-shaped containers when opened. The bag is an essential component of today's consumption-oriented civilization; it is global in nature and the German term awakens associations with tooting and transmitting sound. This defines a field that – essentially since the advent of Pop Art – has been a substantial and integral part of an art that brings together images of this world, their reproduction, everyday life, seriality, and diversity with the second-hand and strident to create a new art that profoundly touches people's emotions.
The art of Thitz is grounded in a societal process that began in the mid-twentieth century and which completely changed art and the world. The young and wild of the pop generation took up arms in their teenage rebellion against the generation of their fathers and mothers, the establishment, and the state. They surfed on the wave of the new pop and rock music, sparking the biggest social revolution in the history of mankind. The century began under the thumb of an authoritative state and authoritative family in the Western world and under the dictates of the “one, true art”. By the end of the century such notions had been swept away by individual self-determination, self-realization, and freedom – and a new art of diversity and variety. A pop culture emerged that sought to reach many, many people. In this process, a fully abstract, gestic art developed, the art of colour field painting, and above all a new pop art. The outward signs of the pop art of the 1960s are the adoption of the serial, the factory-made, the residual and discarded. The great proximity to the simplistic representation of advertising, comics, and everyday life is its mark.
Thitz works in this tradition; he develops it further, intensifies it, and integrates the poles of everyday reality, art, life and their sensorial experience into a new form of art. Thitz is a major representative of this new neo-pop movement. He takes both the outside and sometimes the inside of bags as surface for his painting. Single bags and accumulations of bags are the vehicles of Thitz's visual ideas. The notion of material collage is always there; graphic, tangible, direct.
Thitz produced his first bag picture in 1985, more than 30 years ago, when he was studying under the great informal master K.R.H. Sonderborg at the Stuttgart State Academy of the Visual Arts. Already then the works of Thitz were manifold: representational images, transformed everyday objects, loci of artistic action, dialogues with the world of visual signs and the everyday world, and part of a vast artistic performance going far beyond depiction, out into the world.
If we take Thitz's latest city pictures, whose technique he describes succinctly as “acrylic, bags on canvas,” this close connection with many different artistic perspectives and position is clear. His subjects and motifs are born of wide travels, which have taken him to all the important points of the globe and which are reflected in his art. The cities and places depicted can be immediately and directly recognized in his pictures. But they do not merely portray views: they are transformations into the colourful, lineal weave of Thitz's art. The rich, infinitely detailed circumstances are translated into a vivid and diverse narrative tissue of line-like events. These city pictures change the narrative of the detail-rich portrayal of what has been seen, experienced on the spot, in dream or actuality, into a bright new, lineal whole. Even if these works recall illustrations, they are much more than depiction; the effect is a staging of local realities with the tools of Thitz's art. The fact that Thitz uses bags as a surface for his pictures is no accident but an integral element of his concept. The handle applications of the bags loop out over the edge of the picture. They breach the sharp linear contours of the picture and evoke associations – the picture as bag and the picture over and beyond what is depicted as a receptacle for content. The pictures are loci of visual message, loci of received content rendered portable by the associated holding and carrying systems; dream receptacles with visible dream-loop handles. At the same time, the art of Thitz is harnessed to a double, global concept, to Thitz's travels through the world and to the dialogue in the travels of the pictures in the world. Over and over again, people are depicted who look out from the pictures, seeking contact in dialogue with the viewer. The pictures are therefore not only portrayals but also reflective surfaces for impulses the images send to the viewer.
With his art, Thitz creates sweeping and global images whose integral artistic underpinning is not exhausted in the realization of something pictorial on a surface. Thitz takes the full concept of bag into account in his art; he associates the seemingly so paltry and self-evident receptacle of our present civilization, the bag, with a special notion of message and its global positioning.
Prof. Dr. Meinrad Maria Grewenig, 2016 *1954, married, 3 daughters, since 1999 is CEO of the World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte – European Centre for Art and Industrial Culture From 2011 to 2013 he was managing director of the Saarland Cultural Heritage Foundation. Since 2015 he is chairman of the Saarland Museum Association.
"Painted Cities"
Paris – London – New York – Hong Kong …
Thitz brings together the great metropolises of the world in his new series of "Painted Cities". It is not difficult to find one's way in Thitz's world, for each city is identified by an easily recognisable and typical feature: the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the skyscrapers of Manhattan, Sydney's famous opera house or Hong Kong's glaring billboards …. The artist plays with the recollections and clichés that are so much a part of our visual memories – even for places we have never visited. But the pleasure of recognition is quickly replaced by irritation, for what we see is not quite the world we know. Thitz's fantasy has been to work, adding a house here, a new and extravagant roof there. Paper bags, people, blobs of colour and works of art drift over the cities; the shadows of the entrance to the Panthéon in Paris have their own secretive life … The cities only pretend to be the ones we know. What Thitz has really done is to create a new world, his own world, the Thitz World – a cosmos full of wonder and magic.
His cities are modern beauties: large, noisy, glaring, dynamic and pulsating, packed full of colourful skyscrapers, overrun with cars, people, iridescent shop windows and advertising posters. It is not the actual cityscape that interests Thitz, rather it is the sense of the city – the desire to capture the impressions that bombard us in Paris or London, to recount what makes each attractive and simultaneously demanding and arduous.
"If one really wants to paint large cities, one cannot depict a fictive city but must instead try to paint the experience itself, with all the noises, the racket, the dust and the smells. One second in a city is a mine of information – this city is for me my inner vision – the pictures of this exhibition."
Thitz's earlier cityscapes evolved from photographs: large-scale reproductions were transformed into new cities using collages or over-painting. There his use of artistic means to manipulate reality was particularly evident. For the present series in the exhibition in Karlsruhe Thitz no longer uses the technique of over-painting, and though reality remains his point of departure, it is now far more strongly subjugated to his artistic will. This newly won freedom opens up even greater possibilities of experimenting with perspective and composition and allows him to infuse his images with new vitality and pictorial depth. But his way of painting has also changed. Thitz revives the watercolour technique of his earlier works and builds up his images using layer after layer of transparent and fluid colour. This gives the ink drawings that extend over the entire surface a lively if somewhat nervous character, and while these drawings give greater definition to forms and motifs, they do not actually create an unbroken outline. Webs of fine lines grow out of tiny details, drawing us into the furthermost corners of the pictures.
Continuing the ideal of the "artist-as-creator", Thitz populates his newly created world with creatures of his own making. The sea of dead houses and blocks of skyscraper are, in the true sense of the word, "re-animated". Witty, colourful figures scurry along streets, peep out of windows, or wave to one another – and to the viewer. They are an inseparable part of the city; indeed some figures appear to form a homogeneous unit with the facades of the houses they live in or blend into the tarmac of the crowded streets. Others have become giants, extending their spidery arms along streets or embracing entire skyscrapers. These enormous people provide homes for other, smaller people; for after all – as Thitz explains – there must be something useful about being so big!
With just a few strokes Thitz creates figures that are curiously devoid of individuality, and deliberately so, for they are intended to fuel our imagination. It is the viewer who brings them to life by associating the painted faces and encounters with his or her own acquaintances and personal experiences. But just like in real life, there are also cracks in this cheerful world. Not everyone is part of the hustle and bustle; some are sad and full of longing, as if imprisoned in the vast houses, condemned to solitude, and left to observe the interesting lives of those in the outside world. The darker side of the asphalt jungle is also part of the Thitz World.
His works nevertheless remains cheerful and full of positive energy. Teeming city life remains for Thitz the "most important fuel for fantasy". For only those who observe closely the streets and squares of cities discover the "secret things", the secret life hidden behind our visible world … To reveal this secret is one of Thitz's aims – and indeed his images do influence our perception! Those who have engaged intensively with his art find it difficult to look at a cityscape or even sit in a sidewalk cafe without looking for Thitz-figures at the next street corner or behind the window across the street or even in some shape on the tarmac … Thitz himself described this enrichment of our normal visual practice as follows:
"One first of all recognises the city and the figures – after which comes the most important thing: Discovery! Just like in a real city we can let our eyes wander, focus on details. There are innumerable secrets hidden in the images. Without even meaning to we begin to look for them. […] It gives me great enjoyment to hid things so well that even after a year one can still find something to laugh about or reflect on. A discovery which we ourselves make has a greater impact than any calculated reference or explanation. Perhaps this does indeed lead to the discovery of small secrets in "real" streets – and with it happiness at such an unexpected gift".
It was Lucy, his daughter, who opened Thitz's eyes for such "small things". With a child at his side, the artist was suddenly allowed to devote himself to this new view of the world. This is why her birth is mentioned in all his biographies and she herself is part of his pictorial world, as indeed is his wife Katharina Trost. That we are really dealing with personal fantasies is confirmed by the many self portraits in his pictures. Again and again he is to be found among "his people", strolling, with one red and one yellow shoe, through the streets or is seen, complete with brush and palette, adding the finishing touches to the painting in which he appears.
And so his cityscapes tell of his own journeys. His travels led him in the last few years to such places as Morocco, Iceland, Italy, and Turkey, to Norway, Sweden, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, India, Nepal and to South Africa. Here Thitz's desire to trace the roots of his own art is evident: for artists have always travelled, be it to see the works of the ancient world, to experience new stimuli through contact with non-European civilisations, or to simply search for solitude and release in untouched nature.
Such journeys are certainly a source of inspiration for Thitz. Testimony to his encounters with the unfamiliar are the many watercolours he executed on his travels. However he is what one might call a "traveller of the twenty-first century". We live in a time in which travelling has become an everyday thing. It is nothing to fly to a beach party in Majorca or to an exhibition in New York. "The world draws closer together" – this understanding of modern society is one of the themes in Thitz's work – and it is by no means unusual in his world to travel by taxi from New York to London …
Thitz's social ideals are closely interwoven with the technical possibilities of our time. Travelling means communication and social exchange with people, a dialogue with different cultures. He uses the commotion of large cities to convey to us, his viewers, his peaceful and, in particular, his communicative version of a global world. Brown, red, green or blue people, some very small, others gigantic, others still sprouting leaves … live together in harmony and peace. Their large eyes reveal curiosity and interest in the other inhabitants of the city. Continually searching for contact, they invitingly and demandingly stretch out their long arms to the person opposite. Then there are Medusa-like figures with six or more arms and hands growing out of their heads; it is as if with their thoughts and creativity they could influence events in the city.
Thitz uses the artistic means of his painting to capture the specifics of these social ideals: his images are lively, colourfully shrill and cheerful; they are friendly invitations to look. The inhabitants of Thitz's cities have their origins in the world of comics, a medium of the ever-present pop culture and one which, being entertaining, funny, and easily understood, is at once familiar to the viewer with absolutely no experience of art. Ubiquitous lines of text and commentaries also provide initial encouragement to engage with the image. Thitz has abolished all barriers that require knowledge of art theory or art history; he makes it easy for us to begin communicating with him.
Bag Art
Thitz, the bag artist – Thitz and the bag. Over the last few years an inseparable couple. His new city images are in essence also collages – collages made up of reality and fiction. Reality is represented not only through photographs but also by the paper bags themselves.
A bag is first and foremost a trite practical object of everyday life. But here it is also a cultural object. The colourful images and often terse text on such bags reveal something of the culture in which they originated – about their owners and their social status and interests, or about their possible contents. The bag is a product of modern mass production, a symbol but also a tool of consumerism – a 'walking' advertisement and a fashionable accessory. The bag has become a modern means of communication and thus fits wonderfully in the Thitz World: as something carried in foreign places, it tells of far countries and cultures.
Thitz packs the beginning of his bag story in a nice anecdote, one that also began with a journey. In India a vegetable seller gave him some of her paper bags so that the young artist at least had something to draw on – it was a gesture that immediately challenged his creativity. That was the start of the painted bags. Thitz sees the original message of the carrier bag as a question and a challenge, and therefore something which requires an artistic answer – one that is sometimes ironic, sometimes an acerbic commentary; and sometimes this creative source disappears completely beneath a new picture.
Thitz always brings bags back from his travels. Such bags are stored in his atelier, filed according to country and continent. Just like a souvenir, he brings home a bag as a piece of the reality of a strange place, which can then be incorporated into a painting. In this way tiny snips of actual cities are included in his paintings. By painting over the fragments of images and texts on such bags, Thitz – with a certain degree of deadpan irony – adds his own, often bizarre, comments. Here too the artist plays with our perception: his aim is to heighten awareness of the colourful world of consumerism, to confront its banality with one's own creative and not always very serious thoughts.
Mrs. Anja Wenn, Curator
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Department of Education
Dr. Stephan Mann Direktor Museum Goch Text in the book "Wundertüte Bags and Miracles " Kerber Verlag 2010
"Art saves the world’
Travel by artists has a long tradition. The work of generations of artists has been inspired by exotic impressions and distant lands. Whether the fascinating colours of the Orient that Delacroix or Matisse encountered in Morocco, Goethe’s ’Italian Journey’, or the impressions of New York skyscraper canyons into which Rudolf Schoofs first ventured in the 1970s — new and exotic impressions have always changed and creatively influenced the artist.
For the painter Thitz, too, his travels have been an inexhaustible source of inspiration for his global pictures and cityscapes. For many years he has been repeatedly drawn to the metropolises of India, America, and Africa. The impressions he brings from afar find their expression in his large cityscapes. Even though characteristic topographical features occur over and again, his real topic is people and how they live together. The lifeblood of his pictures is dialogue. A great deal happens in his cities and land- scapes. We enter a colourful tangle of buildings, cars, all sorts of strange things, and, naturally, people — people of every ilk, but always reduced to the essential. They are slim figures who signal their wishes to their interlocutors with clear gestures. The viewer rapidly loses himself in the innumerable stories that Thitz also relates when talking about his pictures. He knows exactly what is going on — who with whom and why.
Is it a dream world he transports us to? We are reminded of the flying horses and people of a Marc Chagall. Thitz, too, is a big storyteller. He can characterise people and their emotions with sparing pictorial means. The lovingly painted particulars show how much the artist can go into detail without really being true to detail. At times his technique resembles caricature, and he can accurately portray a personality with a minimum of means.
Drawing is the stylistic key to his pictures. The Danish painter K. R. H. Sonderborg, under whom Thitz studied at the Stuttgart Academy, had great influence on the young artist. His vital brushstroke, his eye for American gestural painting, as well as his metropolitan cityscapes are the basis for Thitz’s technique in painting and drawing. His swift stroke is characteristic of the Thitzian world, including his most recent paintings and drawings.
But comparison shows that painting is not a formalist game for him. His world is one of people and communication. His pictures reflect our present — sometimes more so than suits us.
The population of his cities is typically diverse. Cultures come together, looking down astonished from their high-rise windows. Not always do they find someone to communicate with; they remain alone, gazing sadly at us. The cities that Thitz portrays are covered by a dense web of lines and colours. They reflect a speed of life and interaction that increasingly determines our being, often without our aware- ness. In recent years our daily lives have speeded up enormously; the tempo on our information high- ways has long since ceased to be measured in seconds. Nowadays nanoseconds decide on the DAX or Dow Jones. Personality profiles are designed and defined by computer programs. People are no longer needed for the purpose — no interlocutors, no dialogue. Our computer input is so gigantic that computer- aided networking of this information now determines our reality much more than we suspect.
In this world, cultures meet, megacities grow, and a self-learning communication system spans the entire globe. This is the present Thitz has been portraying for years. But he produces no dark visions. His pictures are complex, showing the full ambivalence of reality. They hold up a mirror to the speed and complexity, the coexistence, sadness and loneliness of people — but also to the diversity and new opportunities that cheek-by-jowl cultures offer.
In the 1994 ’Chabola City’, a shabby hut becomes a palace growing skyward, which has more in common with Cologne Cathedral than with the poor quarters on the outskirts of our cities. Thitz lends dignity to the forgotten slums, so curiously deserted.
Our reality is ambivalent. Appearances are always deceptive; the artist sets out to expose them. ’Puschkin- allee‘, a 2010 Berlin picture, is comparatively calm. An autumnal mood pervades the visual web. And embedded in the fine branching of the trees we discover messages from the artist. Banal phrases, echoes of people in the urban space: ‘wisdom’, ‘artist cell phone’, ‘global’, ‘freedom’, or ‘prosperity 6000 km’. Viewers hesitate, look for explanations in the picture, and are left alone with their endeavours.
Thitz does not resolve the puzzle of his pictures. The world as he sees it is too complicated, too complex for a one-dimensional explanation. Thus the phrase ‘Art saves the world’ from the same picture is wishful thinking, a vision, a wonderful idea. We write our own story about it.
And, of course, there are the bags, Thitz’s ‘unique selling proposition’. The bag is his trademark, and to this day it naturally plays an important role. It is a surface for his painting, an important component of his collages, and, over and again, a herald from foreign lands and cultures. With the bag, the artist travels the world; he finds it everywhere, in China, in Japan, in the USA. The messages it brings reflect the colourfulness and diversity of our world and the people in it. The bag stands for the world of con- sumption and passes on messages. It conceals secrets, revealing only what we want others to see.
The perspective on the world provided by the painter Thitz is a very private one; yet it is borne by a vision that ‘art saves the world’. We would dearly love to believe it.
Dr. Stephan Mann Director Museum Goch
2006 (Catalogue Text for "Die Thitz Welt ")
Small earth - big eyes
To the empire that Thitz is spanning around the world
The world of the painter Thitz is small. With one big gesture a long arm dressed in yellow is spanning the globe. Casually and cheerful he looks, the human being who the arm belongs to, with saucer eyes. The arm is part of a slender person dressed in green who fixes the person opposite himself. And there is no doubt that these arms will manage a hug fast. Other humans use the outlined latitudes for a merry walk and they, too, will circle the world effortlessly in the shortest time. The figures who populate the world in these paintings are agile beings. They defy all laws of nature, are free of gravity and submissive probably only to its creator. Their charisma is unique, refreshing and always animating to look closer. For a long time already they have occupied the skyscrapers of our cities, have nested in New York, London, Madrid or Paris and are capable of covering great distances without effort. Colorful and colored they are, the humans in “Bag City” - red and yellow, green and brown humans with curls or long straggly hair that flutters wildly to and fro. With especial love they are dressed in the strangest headgears. All seems feasible in Thitz´ cities and landscapes. “Mr London”, e.g. comes along “very British” and looks like a modern Robin Hood with long nose and a remarkable hat – which is nothing less other then the cupola of St Paul's Cathedral – on London. So the old Empire has long been conquered by colorful humans, too. And always within is the artist himself. One time in a taxi, another time equipped with wide covering wings floating through the airs in his yellow and red shoes which make him weight-less like Hermes´ winged shoes did. Yellow and Red – these are the colors that can again be found in the prominent vest in which Thitz so much likes to appear.
Yet it all started very down to earth with bags and their messages, bags from all over he world, from grocery stands and museums, from shop chains and fashion houses. The messages on the bags animate Thitz to over paint and create collages. And there arose, grown in the past ten years, a world spanning Empire consisting of countless colorful and merry human figures.
One looks in vain for the center of this world spanning Empire. But one city is repeatedly the sight of new stories: New York. The houses and skyscraper canyons of the metropolis, the postcard view of Times Square or the Flat Iron Building, all the numerous accessories of the Big Apple, again and again the Empire State Building or in earlier works the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center appear. The love for this city, the fascination that it beholds, is the theme of many paintings.
But in the latest works one can also feel its vulnerability, e.g. in the work which was made of a photo taken by the artist on 9/11 on his way to the South tip of Manhattan towards the huge dust cloud.
Whether New York, Shanghai or Varanasi, the metropolis of this earth are for Thitz the stages of his visions of a world in which people of all cultures and views can live peacefully together in a tight space. This idea is the immanent in all of Thitz´ works. In his New York paintings - especially after 9/11 - this vision gains a relevant and impressive quality.With this the photograph is becoming one part of his mediums. Thitz takes it fort that series as background for his collages and paintings. The photos form - as much as the numerous bags, an inspiration for the artist and become a dialogue partner. Reality and artistic inspiration meet in this process.
But it's not a superficial, topographical interest. The skyscrapers and houses are lived in. Humans look out of the windows. And for an all surrounding understanding of the world the view on the detail is compulsory. As colorful and various those people are, they all have those incredible suggestive eyes in common. Through them we can see into the soul-insights of their world and of its inhabitants. As “dream-like” as those cities, too, are revived by them as vulnerable is their reality. Some seem happy to us, others look at the person opposite of them and have found it – and the vitality and joy of life is emitted out of all pores of their bodies. Others though look us straight in the eye – with head tilted slightly to one side and it's their eyes that won't let go off you. They haunt you and always seem to ask the question about the dark sides of this vital and globalized world.
Communication no doubt is regarding these world pictures the key to survive in this world. Many of Thitz´ people therefore lean wide out of their windows and seem to almost loose their balance while doing so. But far from all are capable of leaving their narrow house on Times Square or the historic building in Varanasi on their own. Not all manage to partake in this colorful world. The big colorful whole has its dark sides. And so the dream-like vision of this city landscapes bursts and behind the apparent actual reality hides the castle in the air and in the stirring bustle of our city hides quite often a big emptiness. The world into which Thitz gives an insight remains a world full of contradictions and cracks. Taking all this into consideration what we see in these paintings, there remains the joy and the hopeful attitude which is inherent in Thitz´ work. The creation of the Thitz World is an artistic signal for our society to keep the faith in a better future together. The artist sees this hope and translates it into picture language of many facets and colors. It is up to the observer and up to all those who are capable of entering this world to take this hope – well knowing that this world has a hidden other dimension.
With lots of irony and painted wit Thitz confronts us with his critical intellectual sight of our own European Culture and Tradition. Here begins his thoughtful looking at the world. The countless journeys of the painter are reflected in always new city paintings and his two shoes, one red – on yellow are not only his bright sign of recognition already from afar but they also stand for the incessant being on the move of the artist. And like Hermes with his winged shoes, he delivers good and bad news to us.
In his latest paintings the bag as token of recognition stays in the background. It is true that it remains as a part of the collaged whole, but sometimes only to be identified through the extending handles. But the succinct power the works gain from the photography and the vast over painting. Through it he succeeds in making even more the reality to the main focus of the painting and the picture's starting point.
This corresponds to the consequent line of thought of the artist not only to use the means of paintings to express himself. The moment one lets oneself in on the artist, this world surrounds us completely and we are part of a whole conceptional outline to which also belongs a consequent iconography. The artist is in the course of creating his own cosmos. In addition to the painting and paper works various basic commodities come into existence. It's the eye for the detail which is brought to perfection here and honors the artist. Thitz´ intrusion into our daily life must be taken as an entire whole concept. No thing is too trivial or too inconspicuous to escape his creative urge. He re-designs tables, lamps or even typical multi-story flower shelves of the 50s. He makes his own films which are shown with a lowerable monitor in a “half-automatic” table or huge walk-in bag houses are developed which form an outer layer to Thitz´ own world.
Only from within the complete Thitz Cosmos one grasps the overall ambition of the artist. Regarding all that, Thitz´ world is a colorful, vivid and cheerful world. It's fun to step into it and it makes oneself free to take a new look – even on the nuances and the fringes of reality. He goes beyond the subjective experience and invents ciphers of our reality. With this he makes a final intervention into our life, takes hold of our perception and presents us with the gift of a totally new vital and sensible view of our reality.
Stephan Mann
President Museum Goch
"In his paintings, Thitz captures the screamingly colorful, stimulus-flooded world of today's "megacities. People are swept along in the street canyons by the speed of traffic, live isolated withdrawn in window caves or literally take off in defiant self-assertion. The atmosphere is overlaid by a tangle of messages and signs that buzz around in "cyberspace" and further intensify the merciless acceleration of life and communication. In this world of unmanageable, simultaneous events, a direct dialogue and a togetherness of people can no longer be discerned. The sadness or loneliness of people that can be heard here and there is, however, overcome by hopeful slogans that recall traditional values as well as call for ecological awareness. The apocalypse holds the positive vision of new opportunities: "The future is now".Direktor Herr Dr. Norbert Michels, (Museum Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau. )
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Thitz - Städtebilder Thitz - Tütenkunstaktion | 25. April 2010 - 06. Juni 2010 | Sonderausstellung in der Orangerie des Schlosses Georgium | Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau
" Thitz erfasst in seinen Gemälden die schreiend bunte, reizüberflutete Welt der "Megacities" von heute. Menschen werden in den Straßenschluchten mitgerissen vom Tempo des Verkehrs, leben isoliert zurückgezogen in Fensterhöhlen oder heben förmlich ab in trotziger Selbstbehauptung. Die Atmosphäre wird überlagert durch ein Gewirr von Botschaften und Zeichen, die im "Cyberspace" umherschwirren und die gnadenlose Beschleunigung des Lebens und der Kommunikation nochmals verstärken. In dieser Welt eines unüberschaubaren, simultanen Geschehens ist ein direkter Dialog und ein Miteinander von Menschen nicht mehr auszumachen. Die hier und da anklingende Traurigkeit oder Einsamkeit von Menschen wird jedoch überwunden durch hoffnungsfrohe Parolen, die ebenso traditionelle Werte in Erinnerung rufen, als auch ökologisches Bewusstsein einfordern. Die Apokalypse birgt die positive Vision neuer Chancen: „The future is now"
"Im Rahmen der Ausstellung veranstaltet Thitz, wie schon in zahlreichen Städten des In- und Auslandes, ein interaktives Tütenprojekt:
5000 Papiertüten wurden an Bürger und insbesondere auch an Schüler der Stadt verteilt, mit der Aufforderung, diese zum Thema "Stadt" persönlich zu gestalten oder mit entsprechenden Gegenständen zu füllen. Nach dem Motto: "Wir bauen unsere Stadt aus Tüten" - wurden die von den Bürgern zurückkommenden Tüten zu einer großen Rauminstallation in der Orangerie des Schlosses Georgium angeordnet. Das Publikum schafft somit gemeinsam mit dem Künstler eine große "soziale Plastik". Zur Teilnahme an diesem Projekt war jedermann eingeladen."
Direktor Herr Dr. Norbert Michels, (Website Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau. )
Thitz
The world on bags
The artist Thitz makes it easy for us as viewers. He tells stories that all of us can spin on. And yet there is more to it than that. Bags can do so much more. That becomes clear to me at the latest when I bring a paper bag home with me. I have two cats, and there is nothing better for them than to jump into these bags with a running jump. They stay there for hours, explore every corner, hunt the emptiness and finally lie down to sleep. I have often wondered what they might find in these bags. It must be a very own cat universe, a world of its own in the bag.
We humans need something more than an empty carrier bag to see the world in it or on it. The Thitz bags are not everyday objects (anymore), but art objects. In the 60s the "Arte povera" used banal materials for art. But even in the new millennium there will be a trend to demand new viewing habits and to re-evaluate everyday life. I remember an exhibition in Ludwigshafen's Hack Museum a few years ago, when the plastic Aldi bag was hung like a work of art. That was strange. Thitz does not use plastic carrier bags now, but rather paper bags, in all sizes and shapes, sometimes an imprint still shines through, you will also find butter bread bags or these triangular paper bags from the fruit department. The wrapping paper of the bag is worked into the painting ground or onto the canvas, sometimes obviously, sometimes hidden, sometimes real bags, sometimes just a handle as "pars pro toto".
He shows us the world and takes us on his journey through the metropolises. He manages to characterize his cityscapes in a way that they are easy to recognize:
The shopping mile of New York-The multicultural and somewhat serious Berlin-Paris, the city of love and fashion-London: reservedly British-The water city of Venice-The museum city of Basel.from Barcelona, where he studied, he brings us an olive tree
But it is not the real architecture that stands in the foreground. It is the people who appeal to us: they seem light-hearted, cheerful, peaceful and colourful. They live together in a very small space and take care of each other, even if they obviously come from different cultural backgrounds. This is already evident in the watercolours: two house dwellers reaching out their hands across an abyss. Or the dark Calcutta, where people approach each other with confidence. A small work on the Speyer Memorial Church is also very nice: She is depicted as a woman, with a big hat, and the terms hope, love, faith, tolerance, happiness. And the symbols of different religions. But despite differences in faith, people stick together. This is not reality, but an ideal world. Many a city dweller becomes a giant, many a skyscraper a castle in the air. Thitz makes the world for himself as it pleases him. And why not? We take up his suggestion and take a closer look at his world on bags: The impressions are strongly visual. These cities don't stink, they seem harmless, cheerful and colourful. The people are somehow de-individualized. It is now our canvases, those of the viewer, we can give them character and a biography. People can also be found in the latest works, which no longer show a pulsating metropolis, but rather a utopia, a city of clouds, or, a brand new one, from 2018, a mystical blue mountain world. And what do you discover there? Thitz himself, as Santa Claus, who brings gifts with his reindeer: His gifts, these are all the little stories and secrets that make his pictures so fascinating. One still discovers something new.
This art is unique. Thitz has achieved what many painters dream of: becoming a "brand". Name, bag and appearance: the different coloured shoes. They will track you down, because he himself lives in these cities and landscapes, even the tree from Barcelona. Even his catalogues are true works of art, some of them already out of print.
Thitz has been working with or on paper carrier bags for over 30 years. Studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona, he had all kinds of materials at his disposal. Once, out of embarrassment, he grabbed bags of bread as paper and on a trip to the USA, he was lastingly impressed by the meter-high, dazzling house fronts in New York, where he developed the typical Thitz style. The artist remained true to the bag. This banal object of everyday culture is cleverly chosen: as a "poor" material, it is easy to get and symbolizes on the one hand the globalization of the world, mass production, the world of consumption, but also its original purpose as a means of transporting goods or ideas. In the Western consumer world, they are reluctantly used as carrier bags, but plastic copies are banned at the moment, but taken along as souvenirs from journeys. And since the streams of refugees they are again omnipresent and here not alienated or overloaded with symbols, but very concretely as the only possibility to take your belongings with you on the run. Thitz Tütenkunst also began as a travel companion. In the tradition of 19th-century artist journeys, he often travels to seek new inspiration, not only for his artistic works, but he also likes to get involved with people, as you can see in his pictures. Today, travelling is no longer just a change of place, but above all communication and exchange. Differences between cultures become clear, and Thitz does not look at his own European culture and tradition without criticism. This global view, the typical Thitz style, the colourfulness, the joy of creating: this is what makes Thitz successful. Often represented at trade fairs, often sold out, represented in museums, the artist does not float above things. He involves the city's population, has school classes paint bags, and in various cities invites citizens to present their views on bags. The result is wonderful city portraits.
Thitz is a great narrator. His bags burst with lust for life, creative joy and hope for a better world. His bags transport the unshakeable belief in a better world and as such are not only for viewing, but almost a call to action. The artist makes it easy for us viewers, he only expects a close look. His stories need no art-historical interpretation, no explanations. What does the comic-like mean? Is the line or rather the color in the foreground? What do the photo collages mean? And what conveys more messages? Watercolor or acrylic? These questions are irrelevant. It is important that you allow yourself to be infected by this positive view of the world and of people. And if your mood is still not good enough after these impressions, I invite you to take the café-house exercise literally: Go to the cafe this afternoon, look at the people, make up stories and secrets. Try to see something positive in every person, even if it's not obvious at first glance. You will be in a good mood and love the world. Thitz gives us enough inspiration. I thank him for this positive view of the world.
Mira Hofmann M.A; cultural scientist Speyer
The world on bags
De kunstenaar Thitz (1962) maakt het ons als kijkers gemakkelijk. Hij vertelt verhalen waar we ons allemaal in herkennen. En toch is er meer dan dat. Tassen kunnen zoveel meer. Dat wordt me op het laatst duidelijk als ik een papieren zak mee naar huis neem. Ik heb twee katten, en er is niets beters voor hen dan met een rensprong in die zakken te springen. Ze blijven er uren in, verkennen elk hoekje, jagen de leegte op en gaan uiteindelijk liggen slapen. Ik heb me vaak afgevraagd wat ze in deze zakken zouden kunnen vinden. Het moet een heel eigen kattenuniversum zijn, een eigen wereld in de zak.
Wij mensen hebben iets meer nodig dan een lege draagtas om de wereld erin of
erop te kunnen zien. De Thitz tassen zijn geen alledaagse voorwerpen (meer), maar kunstobjecten. In de jaren ‘60 gebruikte de “Arte povera” banale materialen voor kunst. Maar ook in het nieuwe millennium is er een trend om nieuwe kijkgewoonten te eisen en het alledaagse leven opnieuw te evalueren. Ik herinner me een tentoonstelling in
het Hack Museum van Ludwigshafen een paar jaar geleden, waar de plastic Aldi-zak als een kunstwerk werd opgehangen. Dat was vreemd. Thitz gebruikt geen plastic draagtassen, maar papieren zakken, in alle maten en vormen. Het pakpapier van de tas is verwerkt in de ondergrond van het schilderij of op het doek, soms duidelijk, soms verborgen, soms echte tassen, soms alleen een handvat als “pars pro toto”.
Hij toont ons de wereld en neemt ons mee op zijn reis door de metropolen. Hij slaagt erin zijn stadsgezichten zo te karakteriseren dat ze gemakkelijk te herkennen zijn:
De shopping mile van New York - Het multiculturele en ietwat serieuze Berlijn - Parijs, de stad van de liefde en de mode - Londen: gereserveerd Brits - De waterstad Venetië - De museumstad Bazel - Uit Barcelona, waar hij gestudeerd heeft, brengt hij ons een olijfboom
Maar het is niet de echte architectuur die op de voorgrond treedt. Het zijn de mensen die ons aanspreken: ze lijken lichtvoetig, vrolijk, vredig en kleurrijk. Ze leven samen
in een zeer kleine ruimte en zorgen voor elkaar, ook al hebben ze duidelijk een verschillende culturele achtergrond. Dit is niet de werkelijkheid, maar een ideale wereld. Menig stadsbewoner wordt een reus, menige wolkenkrabber een luchtkasteel. Thitz maakt de wereld voor zichzelf zoals het hem behaagt. En waarom ook niet? Wij gaan
op zijn voorstel in en bekijken zijn wereld op tassen van dichtbij: De indrukken zijn sterk visueel. Deze steden stinken niet, ze lijken ongevaarlijk, vrolijk en kleurrijk. De mensen zijn op de een of andere manier de-geïndividualiseerd. Het zijn nu onze doeken, die
van de toeschouwer, wij kunnen ze karakter en een biografie geven. Mensen zijn ook
te vinden in de nieuwste werken, die niet langer een pulserende metropool tonen, maar eerder een utopie, een stad van wolken, of een mystieke blauwe bergwereld. En wat ontdek je daar? Thitz zelf, als de Kerstman, die cadeautjes brengt met zijn rendieren: Zijn geschenken, dat zijn alle kleine verhalen en geheimen die zijn schilderijen zo fascinerend maken. Men ontdekt steeds weer iets nieuws.
Deze kunst is uniek. Thitz heeft bereikt waar veel schilders van dromen: een “merk” worden. Naam, tas en uiterlijk: de verschillende kleuren schoenen. Ze komen je op het spoor, want hij leeft zelf in deze steden en landschappen, zelfs de boom uit Barcelona. Zelfs zijn catalogi zijn ware kunstwerken, waarvan sommige al uitverkocht zijn.
Thitz werkt al meer dan 30 jaar met of op papieren draagtassen. Gestudeerd aan de Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart en aan de Academy of Fine Arts Barcelona, had
hij allerlei materialen tot zijn beschikking. Ooit greep hij uit gêne naar zakken brood
als papier en op een reis naar de VS raakte hij onder de indruk van de metershoge, oogverblindende gevels van huizen in New York, waar hij de typische Thitz-stijl ontwikkelde. De kunstenaar bleef trouw aan de tas. Dit banale voorwerp van de alledaagse cultuur is slim gekozen: als “arm” materiaal is het gemakkelijk te krijgen
en symboliseert het enerzijds de globalisering van de wereld, de massaproductie, de wereld van de consumptie, maar ook zijn oorspronkelijke doel als transportmiddel voor goederen of ideeën.
In de westerse consumptiewereld worden ze schoorvoetend gebruikt als draagtas, plastic exemplaren zijn op dit moment verboden, maar meegenomen als souvenir van reizen. En sinds de vluchtelingenstromen zijn ze weer alomtegenwoordig en hier niet vervreemd of overladen met symbolen, maar heel concreet als de enige mogelijkheid om je spullen mee te nemen op de vlucht. Thitz Tütenkunst begon ook als reisgezel. In de traditie van de 19de-eeuwse kunstenaarsreizen reist hij vaak om nieuwe inspiratie
op te doen, niet alleen voor zijn artistieke werken, maar hij houdt er ook van om met mensen om te gaan, zoals je op zijn foto’s kunt zien. Vandaag de dag is reizen niet
meer alleen een verandering van plaats, maar vooral communicatie en uitwisseling. Verschillen tussen culturen worden duidelijk, en Thitz kijkt niet zonder kritiek naar zijn eigen Europese cultuur en traditie. Deze wereldbeschouwing, de typische Thitz-stijl,
de kleurrijkheid, het plezier in het creëren: dat is wat Thitz succesvol maakt. Vaak vertegenwoordigd op beurzen, vaak uitverkocht, vertegenwoordigd in musea, de kunstenaar zweeft niet boven dingen. Hij betrekt de bevolking van de stad erbij, laat schoolklassen tassen beschilderen en nodigt in verschillende steden burgers uit om hun visie op tassen te geven. Het resultaat zijn prachtige stadsportretten.
Thitz is een groot verteller. Zijn tassen barsten van levenslust, creatieve vreugde en hoop op een betere wereld. Zijn tassen vervoeren het onwankelbare geloof in een betere wereld en zijn als zodanig niet alleen om naar te kijken, maar bijna een oproep tot actie. De kunstenaar maakt het ons als kijkers gemakkelijk, hij verwacht alleen een blik van dichtbij. Zijn verhalen behoeven geen kunsthistorische interpretatie, geen uitleg.
Wat betekent het stripachtige? Staat de lijn of liever de kleur op de voorgrond?
Wat betekenen de fotocollages? En wat brengt meer boodschappen over? Aquarel
of acryl? Deze vragen zijn niet relevant. Het is belangrijk dat u zich laat besmetten door deze positieve kijk op de wereld en op de mensen. En als uw stemming na deze indrukken nog niet goed genoeg is, nodig ik u uit om de café-huis oefening letterlijk
te nemen: Ga vanmiddag naar het café, kijk naar de mensen, verzin verhalen en geheimen. Probeer in elke persoon iets positiefs te zien, ook al is dat op het eerste gezicht niet duidelijk. Je zult in een goed humeur zijn en van de wereld houden. Thitz geeft ons genoeg inspiratie. Ik dank hem voor deze positieve kijk op de wereld.
Mira Hofmann M.A; cultural scientist
Thitz
Kindly translated by support of Galerie Etienne ,Netherlands
Ricarda Geib Text in the Book Bags and Miracles 2010
‘The future is now‘ Unfathomable are the shadowy depths of the Thames; a deep night blue saturates the surface of the water at the Docklands quay. Blue shadows, blue hour — colours penetrate, as deeply as odours. Blue is the colour of sky and abyss, the colour of wonder, the colour of afar and desire — the colour of knowledge. Soft and silvery, the air shivers over the still surface of the water; the faded blue of the vibrating atmosphere blurs the bounds of the visual space; amorphous tones of blue shift London’s horizon into disquieting distance. Blue marks the maelstrom of yearning. ‘For all waters have overflowed the banks and the rivers have risen, the water lilies have blossomed in their hundreds and have drowned (in their hundreds)’, reports Ingeborg Bachmann in her story ‘Undine Leaves’. After a century of disasters and floods, the Thames has opened up to the sea. Thitz’s vision of a water city in the former London docks — the large-scale acrylic painting ‘The future is now‘ completed in 2010 — describes a morbid scenario in blue with irritating temptations. Is Thitz addressing the ‘lust for downfall’? Nervous figures with elastic, flexible bodies explore their refuges in the towers of the old port. In the water, far from a small brown designer bag, drifts Ophelia — femme fragile, femme fatale — beset by fish & chips, like a final blossom of the city, a ‘slender lily weighed by the water’ (Rimbaud).
With suggestive brushstrokes, Thitz models a vision, a futuristic profile of the Docklands with their ware- houses, atriums, trendy luxury apartments, and high-tech palaces on the skyline. Thitz shows buildings of marble, glass, and steel — sometimes exaggerated in scale with striking effect. Heavy bridge pylons traverse the picture in steep diagonals, transforming the metropolis London into a bizarre water city, a mad city of the third millennium — with Tower Bridge and the dome of St. Paul’s in off. We pocket things that are important for us, that we want to keep, that we perhaps also want to hide. We pick up bags, take them with us. With a bag we’re mobile. Bags are cult objects, prestige objects, reveal- ing the social status and interests of the carrier. Thitz glues bags on the naked canvas. His paintings are collages of particular material charm. Bags from around the world underlie his city landscapes; repeated overpainting unfolds a fascinating, associative web of thought between bags and painting. Handles break through the canvas, stand in the picture, or extend beyond the canvas. Handles seem to offer themselves everywhere as if the pictures were themselves bags. This coupling of what does not seem to belong together gives rise to new images of the city, ambitious images beyond externally visible reality, images in which emotions, presentiments, tensions, and moods are filtered out.
Thitz likes to travel. A bag collector. However, the world huddles together in his pictures. Instead of presenting panoramas, Thitz decomposes the enigmatic views into visual fragments, teasing moments of uneasy beauty out of the metropolises. Sometimes places are linked with memories. We believe something of our hopes and thoughts remain clinging to the walls, as if such intangible remembrance needed a place where it could be visited. Something of this transience of life is contained in Thitz’s vibrating compositions. His paint- ing seems feverish; with stirring colour he fixes gestures and movement that discharge, thrusting the skyline into disarray. The canvas becomes a scene of painting ‘crime’; traditional coordinates such as up and down, right and left fall victim to the dramatic back and forth of his pulsating brushstroke. In Thitz’s pictures gravity seems abolished. He applies colour in varnishes. With virtuosity, layer by layer, elastic webs cross the surfaces, interweaving the layers of paint and producing deeply staggered visual spaces of great mobility and watercolour-like lightness. Sensitive lines spin themselves across bizarre façades. Chasms interplay under high tension — space and surface are interwoven, opening and closing. London becomes a kaleidoscope. On the façades of the city, yellow and orange complement one another in an apotheosis of light and warmth. It is cold out on the sea. In the dialogue between natural and artificial light, Thitz unfolds the unfathomable transience of the ‘blue hour’.
In this painting, Thitz writes Peace, Spirit, Wisdom and Future. Why? We find words in the water, a clock- face in the sky: ‘Time’. The domains of reality links Thitz in his pictures point to the tension between external reality and the inner world — the world of wishes, fears, dreams, and promises. The words he inserts appear at first glance not to belong to the world of consumption: can we buy peace or time? In ‘The future is now‘ a surreal refraction takes place that nevertheless corresponds to reality: text is every- where, in the streets of the city, too, in which the promise of goods and language seems long to have lost any healthy sense of what is important and what is unimportant. Thitz’s words flash like shrill neon signs or escape organically from the depths of the picture, permeating the scenery cryptically like biomorphic veins. People and the city are indivisibly interlocked through the tightly-knit, impenetrable network of words that tattoo the sky and the Thames. Thitz covers the new London with a fluid, an enchanted sfumato. He skillfully models light; a sensitive play of colours generates a radiance. At times, colour floods entire areas of the picture, with loose brushstrokes interrupting the movement, creating temporal initials — resembling tarrying seconds. The majority of shadings cover a narrow spectrum, and it is precisely this limitation that lends ‘The future is now‘ a delicate brightness and airy vastness that does not deny the weight of the mighty architectures. The deep shadows of the rampant city remain materially heavy. The exaggerated immensity of the black industrial backdrop reveals what Turner called the whole ‘smallness of the human being’ in the physical and moral sense.
London, Paris, Berlin, Venice — of the highlights of urban architecture we see only the clichés. Thitz’s geographical references are coded. The artist is not interested in striking motifs or recognisable city maps. Rhythms and ornamental principles — reflection, sequencing, repetition — determine the composition. Irregular perspective and multidirectionality are characteristic of his pictures. Thitz’s visions of metropolises — seemingly infected by the world of the media — spread explosively across the surface of the picture, taking no account of the edges, as with pop-ups in the Internet. Thitz would appear to be fascinated by the anarchic geometry of expanding cities and the specific romanticism of modern life. A breath of yearning can be sensed from the sea of buildings, the brightly lit streets through which people wander, searching and laughing. Thitz portrays the adventure of the city, the madness of the simultaneity of complex happenings; he depicts looks that seek one another, looks that miss each other, hands that find their way to one another.
The all-over of his subversive, highly elastic brush drawing recalls graffiti, an art executed secretly in supposedly slapdash haste on walls in the public space. His lines, which dynamically inflate and taper, synaesthetically depict the apocalyptic nervous system of the city — labyrinthine, moody, loud, and full of strange odours. His lanky figures, who with their autonomic dynamics free themselves of every embrace, intensify the contrast, driven onwards to the edges of the picture or wafting away. Enticing or searching, they stretch out their long arms and thin fingers. Thitz has developed a figure type of his own, an image of the human. His pictogram-like figures — a stylistic device we know from comics and design — convey supposedly buoyant freshness — the buoyant freshness of enigmatically developing metropolises. Some appearing to be relaxed and merry, others awkward, are fully portrayed but rather ‘called up’, sampled, as in the rapid cuts of advertising spots. They hover silently, fall, or make their way noisily like an exuberant horde through the pictures, fully in harmony — it would seem — with the growth of the urban jungle that surrounds them. Their unconstrainedness, their succinct directness are disarming. But in this very context there are fleeting encounters full of ‘promise’, enchanted algae, and secret signs in the water of the port, ‘peace’, and a bag in the wind . . .
In Thitz’s engaging picture-puzzles — in all these intersections, nodes, and collages of seemingly chaotic lines – a spiritual place emerges on closer examination that reflects the dreams of these metropolises, their utopian potential that inspires the artist. Thitz’s metaphorical game, his almost plastic visions of the city as a place of promise, reveal the meanders of a profoundly poetic imagination.
Ricarda Geib, Stuttgart, March 2010 in the Book Bags and Miracles
Exhibition „Bag Art“ at Cultural Center of the City of Athens, Paintings and objects by Thitz
(part of the speech on the opening of the exhibition)
……A most natural reaction when entering an exhibition is for a visitor to place an artist and his creations into the landscape of our own very personal experience. It is very rare to see works of art which seem without precedence, isola¬ted form the steady and continuous flow of art history. Have we seen works like Thitz's before? This afternoon, I finally stopped torturing my brain to squeeze out the name of an American artist of Caribean origins.
In fact I do see Thitz work well integrated into a stream of contemporary art. And yet, I hasten to add that he takes a lead in that field, because he does it particularly well, with great skill and depth of analysis and creative mission.I suppose, if we were to choose a label, we might see Thitz against the back¬ground of new pop art revival. We do see familiar elements in his reflection of the attributes of our consumers' society, which like Coca¬Cola bottles, Cambells' soup tins or Brillo boxes became the celebrated objects of the popart movement in the 80's of the 20th century. The integration of textual material was also a characteristic of the move¬ment.
And yet, I personally felt, when coming to see Thitz's paintings earlier today, that they had reached another level of reflection: The spiral seems to have moved up one or two levels of conciousness. Objects and messages of our consumer world no longer appear as isolated idols , but very much so as elements of a more complex scenery. They now have become elements of networks, cityscapes. The attributes of modern popular culture belong no less to the struc¬tural matrixes of the metropolis than architectural walls and fassades.Paris, I feel tempted to sing to you one of my favourites Parisian chansons: Sous le ciel de Paris s'envole une chanson, oui oui:If, for example we regard for a monent the painting showing us the River Seine flowing under a bridge. we do recognize the Pont de la Mairie. But the walls of the city and the message have moved in to create a much denser environment than we would actually find around the original. We, being all of us Paris lovers, I presume, are familiar with the scene, and yet Thitz reminds us that our world has changed, that beyond architectural traditions, our city scape, new meanings have entered the stage to determine our collective existence.We recognise the obejects of Pop art, and yet they seem, if once, in the 20th century, they had been presented to us with an air of tranquility and reass¬urance, they now reappear in a much more nervous context. For how much longer will resources be available to produce all of these wonderful modcons?
Modcons which have rendered our lives so much easier, it seemed? Pop world revisited is a world under great pressure. It is a world of of resource scarcity and allocation. How could New Pop art not be an art reflecting these existential concerns, an epoch of crisis and, we must fear, conflict? New Pop comes with some sweet memories, but on board is also an even greater sense of urgency.In this painting I was pleased to see a Challagian figure floating through the sky, a reference if not a reverence to the centrality of the human individual in earlier periods of modern art.New York, another city of my life, there truly I did it my way:Start spreading the news,'I 'm leaving today,I want to be part of it, New York, New York ... (singing)
Thitz was in New York on 9/11. He is now presenting to us a panorama of Manhattan, which we do recognise and yet a different picture. The twin towers of the World Trade Center are gone. Timidly, it seems, a new freedom tower may sprout from the rocky ground of Manhattan Island. The famous skyline is represented in a rather moderate way. What we see, above all, is the reemergence of the people. They are no longer hidden inside their rabbit cages, but they are looking at us seeking to communicate with us, us, their brethren in a globalised world.
In this Thitz is a protagonist of a much wider stream of contemporary art, which is the reemergence of the human individual and of human collectives as the focal point of artistic creation. The human and humanity are back in town, in art. It seems that in new pop art the hu¬man is reinstalled back into his place, which classically speaking is his as of right. The human, and ...humanity.Speaking of the human place in art, I feel that the time has come to walk on a few steps to a painting which reflects Thitz's personal perception of Athens.
Artistic expression in classical ages reached an amazing variety of forms and contents. But surely in the 5th century B.C. they had in common a concentration of analysis and expression on the human body. And I should hasten to add: on the human mind, and soul. The painting which Thitz has collaged in the centre of Athens may well be by the one by Raphael possibly showing Saint Paul, possibly also Saint James, maybe in a fictitious way even Platon or his spirit. Philosophy for sale? Is this the state of Athens in our times? In classical Athens the „philosophy for sale“ was a very sensitive issue. Platon and his academics despised the sophists for offering their wisdoms for money. And yet, I personally find in the teachings of sophists like Protagoras an insight into human existence which often seems more realistic than the idealisms of the academy. There is surely no less truth in art than in rationality.The classical age opened the spectrum for defining human identity between the poles of rationality and irrationality, logos and mythos, philosophy and the arts. The Acropolis, like no other monument, bears witness to this dialectic which has especially set the stage for the evolution of European identity. In contemplating the artworks created by Thitz we may become particularly conscious of these our roots.
Thitz, a painter, but also a thinker. Thinking is very clearly and obviously an important source of artistic creation. I firmly believe that great art works regularly reflect brilliant minds, the intelligence of the creator. Intelligence for me is a measure to distinguish good art from rubbish. But then it is also true that art is a powerful source of intelligence, of logical and philosophical thinking, even though less conspicuously than is the influence of logical thinking of art. If it is less evident, this follows logically from the fact that the impact of art can¬not be expressed in terms of the logos, only in the idiom of art.BagArt. A characteristic trend of renaissance paintings were the vanities, paintings reminding the onlooker of his mortality and admonishing him to live his life accordingly, to embrace the nearness of death as his guidance.
In BagArt Thitz represents not vanities, but opportunities. The various images on his bags seem like promises, even though empty promises. Thitz' bags are, however, an appeal to all of us that we must not succumb to the prefabricated promises of our supermarkets' and discoun¬ter world. He has invited dozens of Athenians to decorate these bags, a remarkable series of individualized promises. They show us states of well-being and experiences which the creators of these images wish us. I see in them signals of human solidarity which have become ever the more important in our times of crisis. But it is for us to accept these wishes and to fill these forms with content.
Start spreading the news !
Guy Féaux de la Croix ATHEN 2008 (Vice Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Athens)
Thitz, der Mann mit dem roten und gelben Schuh, ist ein Tausendsassa, der weltweit unterwegs ist. Werfen wir nur einen Blick auf die Liste seiner Einzelausstellungen: Kunstprojekte führten ihn nicht nur quer durch Deutschland und Europa, sondern auch in die USA, nach Brasilien und Korea. Thitz, das buchstabiert man T wie Toleranz, H wie Heiterkeit, I wie Ideale, T wie Träume und Z wie Zeitgeist und dieser Name ist Programm. Für Thitz ist Kunst Kommunikation. Seine Tütenaktionen, bei denen der Künstler rund um die Welt reist, um Menschen dazu anzuregen, weiße Papiertüten zu Kunstobjekten zu gestalten, können ganz im Sinne von Joseph Beuys als soziale Plastiken verstanden werden. Die Dokumentation hier drüben mag Ihnen einen kleinen Einblick von der Vielfalt dieser Projekte geben. Vielleicht erinnern sich einige von Ihnen noch an seine Ausstellung 2006 in der Städtischen Galerie in Offenburg. Überdies können wir bei dieser kleinen Installation sehen, dass er für die Sammlung Frieder Burda das Innere einer Tüte gestaltet hat und auch auf sein großes Tütenprojekt in Solingen im vergangenen Jahr wird hingewiesen. Auf dem Tisch zeigt sich, dass in der "Thitz Welt" selbst das Buch zur Tüte und die Tüte zum Buch wird.
Thitz, der als Matthias Schemel 1962 in Frankfurt geboren wurde ist also - indianisch gedacht - der, der mit der Tüte malt. Dabei fungiert diese nicht nur als Malgrund, sie ist auch zentraler Bestandteil seiner Collagen und sie wird genauso auf Büttenpapier wie auf Leinwand aufgebracht.
Die ersten Tütenbilder entstanden 1985, also bereits während seines Studiums der Malerei bei Prof. K.R.H. Sonderborg an der staatlichen Akademie der bildenden Künste in Stuttgart. Die Frage, wie denn die Kunst zur Tüte oder die Tüte zur Kunst kam, beantwortet eine kleine Begebenheit, die - wenn sie nicht stimmt - so doch gut erfunden ist. Angeblich fehlte ihm auf einer Zugfahrt durch Indien das Papier für eine Zeichnung, nur eine Tüte war als Ersatz dafür zur Hand. Sie wurde in der Folge sowohl Malgrund als auch Objekt seiner Kunst. Dieses Bemalen und Überzeichnen, das Aufkleben von Tüten auf einen Untergrund, die Gestaltung von comicartigen Stadtlandschaften unter dem Einsatz von Tüten - all das sehen Sie heute hier. Und: Die Papierbeutel werden nicht nur aufgeklebt, sondern auch in die Bilder hinein gemalt. Dort fliegen sie durch den Raum oder sie stehen inmitten einer "Green City" wie das hier drüben im Bild Nr. 11 der Fall ist.
Die ersten beiden Bilder dieser Ausstellung, die "Tütenliga" und die "Tütenspedition" mit ihren kleinen Butterbrottüten bilden einen schönen Auftakt für die Ausstellung. Auf diesen kleinen Wundertüten führt Thitz einen Teil seiner Figuren- und Dingwelt vor und schon hier beginnen wir zu ahnen, dass der Künstler in diesen Weltbildern eine allgemeingültige Bildsprache erschafft, eine internationale Zeichensprache, die für alle Menschen verständlich ist.
Es folgen die Großstadtbilder, die man als Wimmelbilder für Erwachsene bezeichnen könnte. London, Paris, New York, Köln - Thitz führt uns zu den Sehenswürdigkeiten dieser Orte, doch mehr als ein Reiseleiter ist er ein Geschichtenerzähler, der mit seinem schnellen, zupackenden Strich auch von all den kleinen Ereignissen berichtet, die sich um diese Wahrzeichen herum ereignen. Diese Städte offenbaren dem Betrachter eine Vielzahl von geheimen Botschaften und manchmal übermitteln sich diese durch kleine Texte. So ist dem Köln Bild "Utopian Civilizations. Green City" ein Zitat des deutschen Philosophen und Publizisten Richard David Precht beigefügt, der sagt: "Wir brauchen nicht mehr Zeug, wir brauchen jetzt mehr Zeit". Wesentlich ist auch, dass das, was im Zentrum der Komposition passiert, genauso wichtig ist, wie das Randgeschehen. Die Henkel der Tüten verweisen darauf, dass sich diese Gestaltungen endlos weiter über den Bildrand hinaus fortsetzen könnten. Und nicht nur die Komposition, auch die Farbe will die Atmosphäre der Stadt abbilden. So hat London auch nebelige Tage und Köln ist deutlich grauer als Paris und New York.
Auch wenn wir zunächst einmal in die Wucht der expressiven Farben eintauchen, so ist doch unverkennbar, dass Thitz eine geradezu unbändige Freude am Zeichnen, am Grafischen, also am Spiel der Linie hat. Man kann sich gut vorstellen, wie er vom großzügig Geformten ins immer Kleinteiligere kommt. Sicherlich bilden für ihn die Werbeaufdrucke der Tüten eine Quelle der Inspiration. Auch wenn der Großteil ihrer Fläche durch Farbe und Linie so bedeckt ist, dass fast nichts mehr von ihrem ursprünglichen Aussehen übrig bleibt, so können wir doch kleine Fragmente aufgedruckter Werbeslogans erkennen, die in witziger Weise in die Gesamtkomposition integriert werden. Von einem weiteren Bestandteil der Papierbeutel sehen wir deutlich mehr, und ich habe es schon angesprochen: Die Henkel spreizen sich in alle Himmelsrichtungen vom Bildrand ab und erinnern an das, was unter dieser Explosion von Farbe und Linie verborgen liegt.
Wie Thitz zur Tüte kam, wissen Sie bereits, doch warum fesselt ihn dieser Alltagsgegenstand nun schon seit rund 30 Jahren? Lassen wir den Künstler dazu zu Worte kommen: "Ich suche nach Gemeinsamkeiten unter den Erdenbürgern, die sich unabhängig von Politik, Wirtschaft, Kultur oder Religion vor allem im alltäglichen Leben zeigen. Der Alltagsgegenstand Tüte ist nur ein Element einer bereits vorhandenen "globalen Kultur", welche bereits heute existiert! So trägt z.B. ein Mensch in Odessa genauso wie etwa ein Stuttgarter sein eingekauftes Brot in der Tüte heim. Kunst ist heute eine der wenigen Möglichkeiten, um diese Gemeinsamkeiten darzustellen und so vielleicht unsere Sprache eine Winzigkeit weiterzuentwickeln. " sagte Thitz.
In gewisser Weise ist die Papiertüte ein Kulturgut, das die absolute Demokratisierung eines Alltagsobjekts verkörpert. Ihr Gebraucht geht durch alle gesellschaftlichen Schichten. Dennoch darf nicht vergessen werden, dass eine Brottüte für einen Obdachlosen natürlich eine ganz andere Wertigkeit hat, als für eine flanierende Dame auf shopping tour.
Viel wurde schon über Thitz geschrieben, er wurde auch bereits als Pop-Art Künstler bezeichnet. Diese Beschreibung finde ich gar nicht so falsch, bestand doch bei der ersten Generation dieser Künstler in den 1950er Jahren ein großes Bedürfnis, die Kluft zwischen Alltag und Kunst zu überwinden und das urban geprägte Leben der Massen- und Konsumgesellschaft ins Bild zu holen. Die Pop-Art Künstler waren stark von der Werbung inspiriert und bezogen Dinge des täglichen Lebens, banale Alltagsgegenstände und Konsumgüter ins Bild, um eine völlig neue Ästhetik zu schaffen. Der Amerikaner Robert Rauschenberg, der als so etwas wie der Vorreiter der Pop Art gilt, meinte, dass ein Bild dann "wirklicher" wird, wenn es aus Teilen der "wirklichen Welt" gemacht ist. Thitz würde daher sicherlich - in Anlehnung an ein berühmtes weiteres Zitat von Rauschenberg sagen: "Ein paar Tüten sind als Material für ein Bild nicht weniger geeignet, als Holz, Nägel, Terpentin, Ölfarbe und Stoff".
So erleben wir hier die globalisierte Welt, die Welt des Konsums, der Medien und der Werbung. Eine Welt, die sich immer schneller zu drehen scheint, die ständig in Bewegung ist, in der sich die Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen permanent wandeln. Blicken Sie nur auf das Bild Nr. 18, es trägt den Titel "N.Y. Web City" und führt uns nun mitten hinein in die Straßenschluchten, in diesen urbanen Dschungel, in die schrille Buntheit der Stadt. In diesem polyglotten Kosmos finden wir Menschen aller Hautfarben, jeglichen Alters und Geschlechts. Sie strecken ihre Köpfe aus den Fenstern und Türen und fast alle blicken fröhlich in den Tag. Doch hier ist nicht alles "eitel Sonnenschein". Es gibt es auch Brüche, die uns aufhorchen lassen. Unter dem Eindruck des schrecklichen Attentats in Paris hat Thitz "Je suis Charlie" in diese beiden Arbeiten (auf dem Boden Nr. 21 und "Paris Parc" Nr. 6) hineingeschrieben. Der Satz reißt uns aus der Welt der Phantasie heraus und schleudert uns zurück in die Brüchigkeit unserer realen Welt.
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, "Kunst rettet die Welt" ist auf einem - hier nicht ausgestellten Werk - des Künstlers zu lesen. Angesichts der aktuellen Zerstörung assyrischer Kunst durch die Terrormiliz IS kann dies als eine wunderbare Vision begriffen werden." Antje Lechleiter, Freiburg 2015
Wenn hier in Berlin der Name „Tietz“ fällt, denkt bestimmt so manch einer zuerst an Hermann Tietz und seine Warenhäuser, besser bekannt als HERTIE (zu denen auch das KaDeWe gehört). Diese Warenhäuser waren bis in die 1990er Jahre einer der führenden Warenhauskonzerne in Deutschland. Sie standen und stehen an prominenten Orten wie zum Beispiel in der Leipziger Straße, Tauentzienstrasse oder am Alexanderplatz und boten um 1900, als der Unternehmenssitz nach Berlin verlegt wurde, ein völlig neuartiges Einkaufserlebnis. Da kann man sich gut vorstellen, wie die Leute damals, begeistert vom neuen Warenangebot, zugriffen und tütenweise ihre Einkäufe nach Hause trugen.
Sie ahnen es: Einkaufstüten sind das Stichwort, auf das ich hinauswollte und das jetzt zu unserem, zum „richtigen“ Thitz überleitet:
Denn Tüten sind das Markenzeichen seiner Kunst und spielen eine große Rolle in seiner Malerei, wie Sie unschwer erkennen können. Die Henkel der Tragetaschen verraten die Verwendung der Tüten bzw. Thitz´ Technik: Er klebt Tüten aus Papier oder Plastik auf Leinwand und schafft so ganz eigene Collagen, die einen Bildträger haben, der seine Funktion als „Träger“ in doppelter Hinsicht erfüllt.
Ausgangspunkt für seine Malerei ist das Reisen: Thitz sammelt Tüten überall auf der Welt und hält seine dort empfundenen Eindrücke in seinen Kunstwerken fest: Hier in der Ausstellung sehen Sie Metropolen, Megacities wie London, New York, Tokyo und … Berlin! Und auf die Berlin-Ansicht aus dem Jahr 2014 möchte ich näher eingehen: Wir Betrachter blicken in einen Großstadt-Dschungel, können die dargestellte Stadt aber sofort identifizieren, denn Thitz wählt für die jeweiligen Städte typische Motive. Hier ist es das Brandenburger Tor und der Boulevard Unter den Linden, aber es gibt viele andere Hinweise und Details, die auf unsere Hauptstadt verweisen: Links oben in der Ecke das Logo der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin mit dem Doppelporträt von Alexander und Wilhelm von Humboldt. (Die Universität gibt im Übrigen vor, das Logo immer am rechten Rand zu platzieren, ein Hinweis, dass wir hier im Reich der Kunst sind). Der Berliner Krisendienst steht auf dem Kopf, in Berlin kauft man sich nicht arm, sondern reich, kann im Toleranz-Laden shoppen gehen…die Bildkomposition ist voller Bezüge, Anspielungen und Details, die es zu entdecken gilt. Wir sehen links das Filmplakat des Avantgarde-Klassiker Sinfonie der Großstadt von Walter Ruttmann, ein Film von 1927, der den Rhythmus der Metropole Berlin einfängt, indem er einen Tagesablauf schildert – unterbrochen immer wieder durch die Ansicht der Turmuhr des Berliner Rathauses. Es ist also kein Zufall, dass wir hier das große Ziffernblatt einer Uhr auf der Straße sehen.
In Berlin ist so allerhand los, als Betrachter ist man permanent gefordert, Neues zu entdecken, Details wahrzunehmen, die zum Schmunzeln einladen.
Thitz selbst formuliert:
"[…] In eine Sekunde Stadt passt unendlich viel Information."
Diese Fülle und Buntheit vermittelt uns Thitz, indem er mit Gestaltungselementen wie Reihung, Spiegelung und Wiederholungen arbeitet. Auch die nicht einheitliche Perspektive ist ein Kennzeichen seiner Bilder, die Tiefe suggeriert, uns manchmal auch das Gefühl gibt, dass die Schwerkraft aufgehoben ist.
Thitz denkt sich dies alles aber nicht aus, sondern bildet das ab, was er selbst erlebt hat, persönliche Eindrücke mit "allen Geräuschen, Krach, Staub und Gerüchen". So bekommt der Betrachter seiner Werke ein Gespür für die Geschwindigkeit der Städte, was auch die über die Leinwand hinausragenden Henkel suggerieren. Denn die Kunstwerke verwandeln sich so selbst zu Tüten, die jederzeit griffbereit sind, mobil – und bekommen ihrerseits etwas "Schnelles, Flüchtiges".
Aber das eigentliche Thema sind die Menschen und was die wimmelnden Großstädte mit all dieser Hektik und Buntheit mit ihnen macht. Diese Menschen, die einen immer wieder und überall anblicken, sind hier ein eigener Figurentypus. Thitz wendet Stilmittel an, die uns aus dem Comic und dem Design bekannt sind - tausende Figuren bevölkern Fassaden und Häusermeere und spiegeln somit die Vielfalt, das Miteinander, auch das Miteinander der Kulturen, die Anonymität und Einsamkeit des Menschen (in der Großstadt) wider.
Somit reflektieren Thitz´ Bilder unsere Gegenwart und nehmen Bezug auf aktuelle Themen, was unter anderem deutlich wird, wenn wir uns die Ansicht der Champs Elysées in Paris ansehen: Da steht jemand mit der Aufschrift "Je suis Charlie" auf seinem Shirt. Schrift bzw. Text ist ein weiteres wichtiges Gestaltungselement – wir als Betrachter suchen nach Erklärungen, aber wir bleiben allein damit. Thitz löst das Rätsel nicht auf. Die Welt, in die uns Thitz entführt, ist viel zu komplex, zu vielschichtig, um erklärt werden zu können.
Insofern wünsche ich uns allen viel Spaß beim Suchen, Betrachten und Entdecken, auch beim gedanklichen Reisen durch Europa, den USA und Asien. Und auch gute Gespräche mit Thitz selbst, der aus Stuttgart angereist ist und heute die Eröffnung mit uns gemeinsam feiern kann. Vielen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit und viel Spaß!
Dr. Julia Klarmann, CEO Sonderausstellungen in der Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee
Thitz
Thitz und mich verbindet nicht nur der heutige Wohnort des Künstlers, Winterbach, wo ich aufgewachsen bin. Vielmehr kenne ich – obwohl erst Anfang letzten Jahres nach verschiedenen Studien- und Arbeitstationen ins Remstal zurückgekehrt – Thitzs Kunst schon lange. Es muss Anfang der 1990er Jahre gewesen sein, als ich das erste Mal den markant gekleideten Künstler – damals noch mit Hut – und seine charakteristischen Tütenbilder gesehen habe. Ob es bei Schemels in der Galerie in der Mühle in Schornbach oder bei einer Ausstellung in Schorndorf war, daran kann ich mich nicht erinnern, doch die farbenfrohen, Lebensfreude ausstrahlenden Arbeiten des Künstlers blieben mir im Gedächtnis.
Aufgrund dieser frühen Begegnung mit Arbeiten von Thitz freut es mich besonders, dass in der Waiblinger Ausstellung nicht nur aktuelle Arbeiten, sondern Werke ab den 1990er Jahren bis heute vertreten sind. Und als Kunsthistorikerin – also nicht Kunstwissenschaftlerin – empfinde ich es, ganz abgesehen von meinen persönlichen Erinnerungen, als großen Gewinn, dass wir Besucherinnen und Besucher hier im Druckhaus Waiblingen Thitzs künstlerische Wege über einen Zeitraum von rund 15 Jahren verfolgen können. Es gibt über diese lange und sicher nicht nur künstlerisch sondern auch menschlich sehr intensive Zeit – wir sehen hier Arbeiten vom Beginn seiner Künstler-Karriere und ganz aktuelle Werke eines international gefragten Künstlers – viele Konstanten. Beispielsweise Thitzs typischen eher zeichnerischen denn malerischen Stil, seine höchst intensive Auseinandersetzung mit der ihn umgebenden Welt und natürlich die Arbeit mit Tüten als Bildträger. Gleichzeitig lassen sich beim Gang durch die Ausstellung auch sehr schön Veränderungen z. B. im Umgang mit dem Farbmaterial, stilistische Weiterentwicklungen, das Aufgreifen neuer Themen und auch leichte Veränderungen seines Blicks auf die Welt beobachten.
Eine Hauptkonstante der Kunst von Thitz ist die zeichnerische und malerische Verarbeitung der den Künstler ganz unmittelbar betreffenden Umwelt. Seine Arbeiten gehen vom konkret Sichtbaren aus und sind aufs Engste mit seinem eigenen Leben verwoben. Thitz reflektiert in seinen Werken Orte, die ihn faszinieren, und zeigt häufig Menschen, die ihn auf seinem Weg begleiten, so findet man in vielen seiner Zeichnungen und Gemälde Selbstbildnisse oder auch Porträts seiner Familie. Der Künstler und sein Leben sind nicht nur visuell aufs engste mit seinem Werk verbunden. Thitz zeigt uns seine individuelle Sicht auf die Welt und überführt diese durch seine Kunst in eine der Öffentlichkeit zugängliche, dem Betrachter zur Identifikation angebotene Vision vom Leben.
Ein weiteres wesentliches Moment für Thitzs Bildwelt ist seine Faszination für das Reisen, seine große Neugier auf und Offenheit für verschiedene Städte, Kulturen und auch Landschaften. Überrascht haben mich bei unserem gemeinsamen Rundgang durch die Ausstellung vor allem die Landschaftsaquarelle, da diese sich nicht nur aufgrund der Motivik sondern auch durch die gewählte künstlerische Technik von den berühmteren Stadtbildern des Künstlers unterscheiden. Entstanden sind diese Blätter – etwa die im Treppenaufgang gezeigten Aquarell-Impressionen der Weite Andalusiens – beim Zeichnen vor Ort. Es handelt sich also um sehr direkte künstlerische Auseinandersetzungen mit dem Gesehenen und mit den Gefühlen, die der Künstler beispielsweise beim Beobachten eine Gewittersturms empfand. Wunderbar treffsichere und poetische Darstellungen verschiedener Orte und Kulturen gelangen Thitz auch in den auf Reisen durch Marokko oder Indien entstandenen, luftigen Zeichnungen, in denen der Papiergrund häufig frei steht, während sich die Aquarellfarbe um einzelne, besonders prägnante Motive verdichtet. Die in der Ausstellung gezeigten Aquarelle legen offen, dass das Naturstudium, das heißt das unmittelbare, zeichnende Erfassen der Umwelt, Ausgangspunkt des Schaffens von Thitz ist. Der ersten Aneignung des Gesehenen in der Zeichnung folgt dann im Atelier die künstlerische Fruchtbarmachung des Motivschatzes. Damit praktiziert der Künstler zunächst einmal eine sehr traditionelle Vorgehensweise: Reiseskizzen bieten seit dem 16. Jahrhundert – Albrecht Dürer – Ausgangspunkt für Städtebilder und Landschaftsszenerien. Thitz aktualisiert die beiden künstlerischen Gattungen „Landschaft“ und „Vedute“ jedoch durch seine Art der Weiterverfolgung der vor Ort gesammelten Motive, insbesondere durch deren Verbindung mit Fundstücken aus der zeitgenössischen Alltagskultur. Dabei tragen zum einen materielle Trouvaillen – meist sind es Tüten aus aller Welt, wir sehen aber auch verschiedenes Kartenmaterial als Bildträger oder Malereimerdeckel – zum anderen tragen auch sprachliche Verweise auf gegenwärtig präsente Themen wie Globalisierung oder Umweltschutz zur Verortung im Jetzt bei. Der Künstler verleiht auf so den Arbeiten auf zweifache Weise inhaltliche Prägnanz: das intensive eigene Erleben und Erfassen eines Ortes präzisiert die künstlerische Form, darüber hinaus vermittelt die Arbeit mit unseren Alltag prägenden Gegenständen und Textfragmenten den Darstellungen große Aktualität.
Meist ist auf den Städtebildern das Hauptmotiv rasch zu entschlüsseln: Thitz macht sich touristische Klischees zunutze und setzt auf den Wiedererkennungseffekt weltberühmter städtebaulicher Punkte wie den Eiffelturm, die Tower Bridge oder die Gegend um den Times Square in New York. Doch laden beim genaueren Hinsehen die überbordende Motivfülle und die aus sich vielfach überlagernden, übereinander geschichteten Einzelmotiven gestalteten Bildräume dazu ein, die Stadtlandschaften auf verschiedenen Pfaden zu durchschreiten und ganz genau hinzusehen. Es entstehen durch die Interaktion der dargestellten Menschen und Gegenstände sowie die ins Bild eingebrachten Worte vielfältige Assoziationsräume, die durch die geistige Aktivität des Betrachters – unsere Verbindung der Motive mit unseren individuellen Erfahrungen und Stimmungen – ausgefüllt werden. Dabei bieten die zwischen vertrauter Motivik und irritierenden Motivkombinationen, grafischer Präzision und verschleiernder Schichtung changierenden Stadtansichten vielfältige Anknüpfungspunkte für die Projektion unserer eigenen Erlebnissen und Geschichten. Die optische Fülle der Städtebilder, ihre extrem dichte zeichnerische Struktur widersetzt sich der hastigen Rezeption: Thitzs Werke fordern vom Betrachter intensives Sehen, Entdeckerfreude und Offenheit für Mehrdeutiges und auch Unerklärliches.
Mit der visuellen Vielschichtigkeit der Stadtbilder korrespondiert ihre inhaltliche Vielschichtigkeit. Die Stadtansichten wirken durch die farbenfrohe Gestaltung und vor allem die comicartig abstrahiert dargestellten Menschen und Alltagsgegenstände, die miteinander kommunizieren und interagieren, teils mit dem Betrachter Kontakt suchen, zunächst einmal spielerisch und leicht. Die in den Darstellungen transportierte Grundstimmung ist positiv und äußerst lebensbejahend, doch sind in die Arbeiten auch gesellschaftskritische Botschaften eingebunden. Zum einen sind im Dschungel der Motive auch Beobachtungen versteckt, die wie die auf ein besseres Leben in Europa hoffenden Asylbewerber oder der Anblick der zerstörten Twin-Towers in New York, mit der auf den ersten Blick wahrgenommenen Heiterkeit der Bilder wenig gemein haben. Zum anderen ist die vom Künstler formulierte Vision einer „besseren Welt“ derzeit für die meisten auf unserer Erde lebenden Menschen noch keine Realität. Doch kann etwa Thitzs Bild „The better world“, seine Utopie einer Welt, die friedlichen und ökologisch intakten Lebensraum für alle bietet, uns unter dem ebenfalls auf dem Gemälde verzeichneten Motto „yes we can“ anspornen, unseren Teil dazu beizutragen, dass wir der im Bild formulierten Vision näher kommen.
Thitz malt für eine bessere Welt, Sie können Kunst kaufen als konkreten Beitrag zu einer besseren Welt für Kinder in Brasilien und wir alle können beim Gang durch die Ausstellung die Portion Heiterkeit, Farbenfreude und ästhetisches Wohlbefinden tanken, die uns die Welt noch lebenswerter machen.
Frau Dr. Hoffmann Direktorin der Museen Waiblingen
Rede zur Vernissage am 27. Juni 2010 im Galerie im Druckhaus und Zeitungsverlag Waiblingen
Zwischen Tütenkino und Bag City
Die Welt des Malers Thitz
„Zwischen Tütenkino und Bag City“ – Die Welt des Malers Thitz
Zur Ausstellung in der Städtischen Galerie im Kulturforum, Freitag 20. Januar 2006
„Bunt und farbig sind sie, die Menschen in ‚Bag City‘, rote und gelbe, grüne und braune Menschen, mit Locken oder langem, strähnigem Haar, das wild hinter ihnen herflattert. … alles scheint denkbar in den Städten und Landschaften von Thitz.“ So schildert Dr. Stephan Mann, Leiter des Museums in Goch am Niederrhein, die farbenfrohe Welt des Malers.
Den Auftakt unserer Ausstellung bildet das Offenburg Bag Art Project, an dem sich weit über 700 Menschen aus Stadt und Region, darunter auch unsere jüngsten Künstler in Schulen und Kindergärten, beteiligt haben. Wir freuen uns sehr darüber und bedanken uns von ganzem Herzen für die witzigen, ironischen und vor allem mit viel Liebe gestalteten Tütenkreationen! Von der minimalistischen Zeichnung über reale Trompeten und Stofftiere bis hin zu Gedichten, Pralinen und kunterbunter Malerei spannt sich das fulminante Spektrum der Tütenerfinderinnen und –erfinder. Es ist schlicht überwältigend!
Neben diesem Gesamtkunstwerk mit seinen vielen Facetten hat der Künstler eigene Installationen aufgebaut, und zwar begehbare Riesentüten. Im sogenannten „Tütenkino“ werden Filme gezeigt, die Thitz gemeinsam mit Kollegen aus der Filmbranche gedreht hat.
Im dritten Raum treffen sich Gemälde und Objekte: die Erdkugel auf einer Landkarte, wie sie früher in der Schule verwendet wurden, eine Künstlerkrone, bemalte Schuhe, natürlich in rot und gelb, dem Markenzeichen von Thitz. Und dort begegnen Sie dann Leonce, einem freundlich lächelnden jungen Mann – diese Figur, in gemeinsamer Arbeit mit Katharina Trost entstanden, gehört zum Bühnenbild von Georg Büchners „Leonce und Lena“ im Jungen Theater Zürich, zwei weitere Figuren aus diesem Projekt haben inzwischen ihren Platz in der Sammlung Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden gefunden.
Hier in diesem Raum sehen Sie einen meterlangen Tütenfries aus vielen kleinformatigen Bildern auf Brottüten, sie zeigen Menschen und Tüten aus aller Welt. Bilder auf Leinwand und Aquarelle auf Papier finden wir in den anschließenden Räumen, darunter auch zauberhafte Landschaften mit Motiven aus Andalusien, Nordafrika und Nepal. Diese vor Ort entstandenden, rasch aufs Blatt gesetzten Aquarelle beeindrucken durch Spontaneität und Virtuosität - ihre Handschriftlichkeit läßt den Betrachter ganz unmittelbar am Erlebnis des Sehens und Geschehens teilhaben. Leichtigkeit und Dynamik des Pinselstrichs offenbaren eine hoch entwickelte Malkultur, die ebenso in den großen Leinwänden zu entdecken ist.
Die künstlerische Arbeit von Thitz heißt in erster Linie und vor allem anderen „nach Herzenslust Geschichten malen“. Und zwar Geschichten von und mit Menschen, Geschichten aus großen Städten. Mit schnellen Strichen entstehen Figuren, die man einfach gern haben muß. Sie sind nicht perfekt, haben oft viel zu lange Arme, brauchen diese aber notwendigerweise, um die Welt und andere Menschen zu umarmen oder anderweitig in Besitz zu nehmen. Bei aller Lust an Farbe sind es filigrane Zeichnungen mit zarten Verästelungen und Ornamenten, immer wieder begegnen uns Gesichter mit großen, weit geöffneten Augen, Menschenkinder in allen Größen, Formen und Hautfarben.
Thitz bezieht in seinen Werken stets den Alltag mit ein, wobei für ihn das Alltägliche nicht nur grau und einerlei ist, sondern voller bunter Gestalten und Ereignisse, und damit letztlich voller Wunder. Und zum Staunen will er uns bringen! Er läßt uns einen neuen Blick auf die Welt werfen, zeigt uns Fassaden und Tüten voller Reklame, setzt die überbordende vielfarbige Warenwelt ins Bild, lenkt unsere Augen aber auch auf vermeintlich Nebensächliches, ja auf kleine, scheinbar banale Dinge. Letztlich schafft er es dabei, die ausufernde Welt der Städte, die vielfach als chaotisch und menschenfeindlich empfunden wird, wieder für die Menschen zu gewinnen. In seinen Bildern – auch wenn es wie Steinwüsten wirkende Hochhausschluchten sind – gelingt es den Menschen immer wieder, sich ins Gespräch zu bringen und dabei von den Städten und Landschaften auf ihre Weise Besitz zu ergreifen.
Die Vorbereitung dieser Ausstellung hat viel Freude und viel Arbeit gemacht. Lieber Thitz, ich danke Ihnen von Herzen für Ihre wunderbaren Bilder und vor allem auch für das Offenburg Bag Art Project – die vielen strahlenden Augen und lächelnden Gesichter heute abend lassen den Januar da draußen fast vergessen! Ganz besonders danken möchte ich dem gestern in Windeseile gegründeten Tütenaufbauteam, das mit großer Schlagkraft und Energie das Tütenprojekt in seiner jetzigen Form fertiggestellt hat. Ein herzliches Dankeschön an alle Helferinnen und Helfer!
Zum Schluß möchte ich noch einmal Stephan Mann zitieren, er schreibt: „Die Erschaffung der Thitzwelt ist ein künstlerisches Signal an unsere Gesellschaft, den Glauben an eine bessere gemeinsame Zukunft nicht aufzugeben. Der Künstler erblickt diese Hoffnung und setzt sie in eine facettenreiche und farbenfrohe Bildsprache um. Es bleibt beim Betrachter und bei all jenen, die in der Lage sind, diese Welt zu betreten, diese Hoffnung aufzunehmen, wohl wissend, daß es eine Welt mit doppeltem Boden bleibt.“ Diesen Gedanken kann ich mich nur anschließen. Ich danke Ihnen herzlich fürs Zuhören und wünsche Ihnen viel Spaß und Freude „Zwischen Tütenkino und Bag City“.
Frau Gerlinde Brandenburger-Eisele (Museum Offenburg)
Do you want a bag or is it okay like that?
The question “Do you want a bag or is it okay like that?” has of course a double layered bottom just like all good bags have double layered ones themselves. A late night dealer at a tram stop would offer you a “Tüte” ( a joint) just like the helpful vegetable selling woman at the grocery market would offer you a “Tüte” (a bag), too. The one or the other is a relief in daily life, although in quite a different sense. The question implies that it could go without a bag, too – in the first case this would be socially desirable, in the second case I'm not quite sure. I could hardly imagine life without bags, where I mean the second kind of bags and only of those shall hence be spoken of.
That of what henceforth be spoken of is etymologically the “bag” or “toot” – a horn-, funnel- or tubelike vessel or wind-instrument (1), where the (german) etymologist is only enough at the beginning because there is a multitude of bags which look entirely different and we put to totally different uses and therefore belong to other bag-types. Also not all bags are suitable for all occasions and not all bags are of a type that one wants to be affiliated with – in which case the question would be answered with a “No, thank you. It's okay like that.”, which an environmentally minded fellow human being would give as an answer at the weekly grocery market. Let us then look at some bags a little more closely.
The unsuspecting bag
In the canteen of a big company in which I sometimes eat my lunch when a soup out the packet or a bag of potato chips are not enough, I overheard part of a conversation at the neighbouring table, which gave me some insights into the situation of the personnel there: “The new assistant to the president – that's by the way some bag…”, said the one – “He doesn't have a clue of what he's doing”, said the other. “Watch out, there he comes right now”, said the third. And “Please, why don't you sit with us” said the first. “Oh dear!”, I said to myself and imagined without turning around what this “bag” would look like: an exquisitely styled rather puffed up bag type unable to voice a single reasonable word.
The menagous bag
That life isn't a piece of cake but hard work instead, we all know well enough. The more surprising is that the time we went to school which should prepare us for the hard life began for most of us with the school bag, which – not to speak of the bottom filled with tissue paper – was filled to the top with sweets. “That's how sweet school is!”, this bag wanted to tell us through its form and content. That the bag lies is what some of us knew already on the second day of school. The con-shaped bag that at first seemed like the inexhaustible and abundant horn out of a fairy-land was soon emptied and could at most be still used as a clowns headgear or a wizard's hat. “Sweets for the beginning of school? – No way!”, say dietary conscious parents today and try with apples, sugar free gummy bears and a voucher for a video game – but the lie remains the same. – The wonder bags are also to be added to the bag-lies of past school days: paper containers of a kind that one didn't know what was inside (because one most probably wouldn't have bought it otherwise). Nowadays the basic idea is successfully improved in the “Children Surprise” eggs.
The job bag
The sac, purse and pouch are commonly known as a close relatives of the bag so that at times a meticulously precise differentiation is superfluous, e.g. the garbage which we could just as well take care of in a garbage bag as in a garbage sac. But of course there are counter examples, that e.g. kangaroos don't belong to the bag animals that carry their offspring around in bags but to the marsupials that carry their little ones in pouches. Goethe's poem “The treasure digger” is to be counted to those counter examples as well. “Poor in purse, ill at heart, I dragged my long days. Poverty is the greatest plaque, wealth the highest good.” The purse that is talked about in this, is – as is not too hard to guess – a purse for money but not a money bag. The purse although stands in close relation to the bag: the pay-bag. When its contents are not enough to make ends meet, the danger becomes persistent that this human – as in case of the treasure-digger – goes astray, sells his soul or - which would be less harmful – gets in trouble with the law and has to glue bags in prison.
The learned bag
Like everything else that has something to do with us humans, the bag has also a history and can become an object of scientific survey. Systematically it presents itself e.g. within the bag universe distinguished between flat sacs, side fold pouches, pointed bags, cross-bottom-shaped purses and block-bottom pouches (1). Sociologically there are considering emotional affinity and manners among the bag-users inconsequent, carefree, environmentally aware, prestige minded and cultivated bag-types (not to be mistaken for the above mentioned bag-types), trouble makers, functionalists and bag-grumps.
The art bag
Dressings are the stuff bandages are made of – yet Plastic Arts are not necessarily and not even essentially made of plastic. Following this line of thought it is advisable to designate a difference between plastic bags and Plastic Art bags, between bag plastic and Bag Art. There is Bag Art on plastic bags which as such are Plastic Art Bags out of bag plastic but essential is here the Art and not the stuff it is made out of. Joseph Beuys has classified his hand signed carrier bags as “Social Plastics” at the 5. documenta at Kassel. Bags of plastic are actually called “plastic bags” although they are rather elastic and where not developed for the transport of Art Plastics. The bag in its full artistic depth and width is what Thitz the artist with the red and yellow shoe has dedicated himself to, whereof the book on hand gives sufficient evidence. Seeing that the bag inside does not only simply appear as object of art, but is soaked up in this book in the real sense of the word and becomes a characteristic of the book itself, I – too – know already what I would answer the shop assistant when buying this book and her asking whether I want a bag or not: “No, thank you, I think it's okay like that.
1/ German Dictionary by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Paperback Edition in 33 Volumes, Volume 22, Munich (dtv) 1984, column 1933, headword “bag” (“Tüte”)
2/ Heinz Schmidt-Bachem: Bags, pouches and carrier bags. On the history of the paper, fibre and foil processing industry in Germany, Münster and other 2001, page 30
3/ Björn Stüwe und Herbert Fitzek: Bag-Types. Of bags, carrier bags and their users. IPV Association of the Paper and Foil Packaging Industry, 2002, page 5
Prof. Helmut Linneweber-Lammerskitten (Zürich Swizerland )
Wollen Sie eine Tüte oder geht es so?
Reisender
Der Mann mit dem roten und gelben Schuh
Der Tütenmaler
Der Hutmaler
König der Herzen
Vater von Lucy und Serafina
Ein Sonderling?
Thitz also. Dieser Mann lebt mitten im urschwäbischen Ort Winterbach, in einer der reichsten Gegenden Deutschlands nahe Stuttgart, wo man a klois Fabrikle sein eigen nennt und der Nachbar, dem das halbe Tal gehört, in seinem alten Bauernhaus lebt. Schwäbisches Understatement, gepaart mit Sparsamkeit und Fleiß. Bei meinem Besuch erfüllen sich in den zehn Minuten, in denen ich die kleine Straße suche, alle Vorurteile einer Fränkin gegen Schwaben. Eine Frau schrubbt ihre Mülltonne, ein kleines Mädchen mit kleinem Besen übt selbstvergessen das Straßenkehren. Die Nachbarin putzt mit Hingabe ihre saubere Treppe. Dazwischen plötzlich ein Haus mit bunten Ziegeln, über die eine riesige Schnecke kriecht. Davor ein Auto, auf das überdimensionale rote und gelbe Socken geklebt sind. Das muss es sein. Ich klingle. Thitz begrüßt mich kurz mit etwas abwesendem Blick, murmelt etwas von einer Maus, verschwindet wieder im Innern, lässt aber die Haustüre ein Stückchen offen. Ich folge ihm, an roten und gelben Turnschuhen vorbei in ein Haus, das auf den ersten Blick aussieht, als hätten sich Pippi Langstrumpf und Antonio Gaudi zusammen getan.
Über dem Esstisch hängt eine wunderschöne Glaslampe, das Spülbecken steht im Raum und ist mit einem Mosaik verziert, von Tassen winken seltsame Figuren, die ich auf den Bildern wieder finde. Überall Bilder. Eines zeigt eine der berühmten Straßen von New York. Es ist noch viel lauter, wilder und bunter als in der Realität. Aus allen Fenstern rufen und winken Gestalten mit riesigen Augen, die wie überdimensionale Brillen quer über das Gesicht reichen. Aus dem Bild ragen an mehreren Stellen seltsame Schlaufen heraus, die sich beim Hinsehen als Tütengriffe entpuppen. Während ich schaue und staune und immer mehr Details entdecke, versucht Thitz eine winzige Maus von einem Klebestreifen zu entfernen, in dem sich das Tierchen verfangen hat. Es gelingt, aber die Maus wirkt sehr mitgenommen und Thitz sieht plötzlich ein wenig traurig aus. Was wird wohl Lucy dazu sagen, wenn sie aus der Schule kommt. Seine erst geborene Tochter, deren Geburt in all seinen Biografien erwähnt wird .
Was hat das ganze mit der Kunst von Thitz zu tun? Diese Frage hat mich bei ihm mehr beschäftigt als bei allen anderen Künstlern, über die ich gesprochen oder geschrieben habe. Wie sehr beeinflusst das Leben mit den Kindern - vor einem Jahr wurde Serafina geboren - seine Kunst? Hätte er sich auch ohne sie diesen kindlichen unvoreingenommenen Blick auf die Welt erhalten? Seinen Mut zum Spaß, zum Verrücktsein. Ich denke, das hätte er. Er hat den Jungen, der er war, nie aufgegeben. Er hatte sich damals die Freiheit erkämpft, mit zwei verschieden farbigen Socken in die Schule zu gehen. Diese Freiheit lässt er sich nicht nehmen. Aber um noch einmal auf seine Töchter und seine Frau Katharina zu kommen, die auch Künstlerin ist. Das Leben und Arbeiten in dieser Familie scheint so eng miteinander verwoben, dass nicht erkennbar ist, wer oder was wen oder was beeinflusst. Wichtig ist das Miteinander und dass jeder seinen Platz hat. Und genau das spiegelt sich in seinen Arbeiten wieder. Auch dort hat jeder seinen Platz.
Um die Thitz Welt zu begreifen, gehen wir an den Anfang zurück. Während des Studiums an der Akademie in Stuttgart probiert Thitz vieles aus. Immer auf der Suche nach etwas ganz Neuem, was es bis dahin noch nicht gegeben hat. Ihm ist klar, dass das aus ihm selbst kommen müsse. Weil es keine zwei identischen Menschen auf der Welt gibt, würde ihm das die Sicherheit geben, dass niemand sonst auf die gleiche Idee käme. Was aus ihm selbst kommt ist zunächst einmal ein großes Interesse an der Welt und an den Menschen. Sein Humor. Seine Fähigkeit, unvoreingenommen an die Dinge heran zu gehen, sich einen Spaß zu erlauben. Wir haben in diesem Zusammenhang über den Begriff Naivität geredet. Der ist besetzt, sagt Thitz als so etwas wie geistig unterbemittelt. Dabei wäre es schön, wenn wir das Naive als Zugang zum tiefen Geistigen pflegen würden. In diesem Sinne ist Thitz naiv.
Er stellt sich und uns viele Fragen über diese Welt. Diese Fragen sind alle in seinen Bildern, manche offensichtlich, manche verborgen wie in einem Suchbild. Dabei macht er es uns nicht leicht. Je tiefer man in diese bunte und laute Welt eindringt, umso undurchdringlicher wird sie. Ein Dschungel an Eindrücken. Und dabei ist es nur ein Teil dessen, was Thitz auf seinen vielen Reisen in alle Welt in sich aufgenommen hat. Dieses Chaos an Eindrücken muss er bändigen, bis es darstellbar ist und in seinen Bildern, Installationen und Filmen gezeigt werden kann. Weil er nämlich mit den Menschen, mit Ihnen und mir über seine Eindrücke und Gedanken kommunizieren will. Wer seine schier überfließenden Bilder betrachtet, mag sich kaum vorstellen, wie es in seinem Kopf aussieht, wenn diese Fülle schon gebändigt ist.
Zurück zum Begriff des Chaos.
Es ist, wie gesagt, nicht das totale, sondern das gebändigte. Thitz nennt seine Arbeitsweise System der chaotischen Annäherung, entwickelt hat er es bereits in seiner Studienzeit. Was das genau bedeutet ist schwierig zu erklären. Ein wichtiges Prinzip dieses Systems ist, sich nicht festzulegen, sich keiner vorgegebenen Logik zu unterwerfen. Sondern frei zu sein, um sich wie ein Baum beim Wachsen immer wieder neu zu orientieren und dem natürlichen Impuls zu folgen. Ein anderes Prinzip ist, sich so wenig wie möglich einschränken zu lassen, schon gar nicht durch Material.
So kam Thitz 1986 auf die Tüte. Dazu gibt es zwei Geschichten. Eine hat er mir erzählt, eine andere habe ich in einem Text über ihn gefunden. Nach der ersten Version findet Thitz 1986 auf dem Sperrmüll in Stuttgart einen Stapel Bäckertüten. Er nimmt sie mit nach Hause. Als er kurz darauf nach Schweden reist und kein Skizzenbuch zur Hand hat, nimmt er die Tüten mit. Thitz empfindet es als Erleichterung, sich nicht mehr für ein bestimmtes Papier oder Format entscheiden zu müssen, es lässt sich angenehm darauf arbeiten und ihm gefällt die Doppeldeutigkeit, man könnte auch sagen Doppelbödigkeit dieses Alltagsgegenstandes.
Man kann in einer Tüte etwas transportieren oder verstecken, im wahrsten wie im übertragenen Sinn. Sie ist etwas Alltägliches und doch Wichtiges und wird auf der ganzen Welt gebraucht. Die Tüte als globaler Gegenstand, der immer mit Menschen zu tun hat und die Kultur des Alltäglichen widerspiegelt. Menschen tragen nicht nur etwas darin, sie zeigen damit auch ihren Stil. Mit einer Aldi-Tüte in der Hand würden Sie nie ein gutes Restaurant betreten, mit einer von Rene Lezard oder Jil Sander könnten sie zeigen, ich gehöre dazu. Wenn Thitz als Reporter auf Reisen ist, nimmt er Tüten mit, um seine Erinnerungen zu transportieren. Aus dieser Erinnerung entstehen zu Hause Bilder, die ihrerseits die Erinnerungen transportieren. So schließt sich der Kreis. Es entstanden ganze Tütenkollektionen, große Rauminstallationen, die in bekannten Museen ausgestellt werden. Die Tüten tauchen immer wieder in seinen Gemälden auf oder dienen als Druckvorlage.
Thitz will die Welt begreifen. Er hat viele Fragen: Was ist die Welt überhaupt? Wer sind wir? Gibt es Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen allen Menschen? Thitz will wirklich Antworten. Aus diesem Bedürfnis entstand der Kunst-Politik-Dialog. Er schickte Politikern gemalte Fragen. Nicht wenige antworteten, Björn Engholm beispielsweise schickte er das Fragebild Two ways out? Der antwortete auf einem Papier aus dem Watergate Hotel: no way out. Auch seine Reisen dienen dem Zweck des Erkennens und Begreifens. Überall interessiert Thitz der Mensch. Wo immer er sich aufhält, im Cafe, im Bus, im Park skizziert er die Typen um sich herum. Er schaut genau hin: Welchen Gesichtsausdruck haben sie, wie laufen sie, wie reden sie miteinander. Er hat eine riesige Sammlung von Typen, die in seinen Bildern immer wieder auftauchen.
Wer genau hinsieht, entdeckt in den Bildern einen schlacksigen Kerl mit einem roten und gelben Schuh. Oft hat er einen Pinsel in der Hand. Es ist der Maler selbst. Damit knüpft Thitz einerseits an eine alte Künstler-Tradition an. Schon Botticelli, Dürer oder Rembrandt haben sich einst in ihren Bildern verewigt. Bei Thitz kommt noch ein zweiter Aspekt dazu: Da er in seinen Bildern seine eigene, die Thitz Welt erschafft, gehört er natürlich auch hinein.
Seit einigen Jahren hat diese Thitz Welt eine regelrechte Fangemeinde. Die Welt will seine Welt sehen. In diesem turbulenten Herbst beispielsweise hat er Ausstellungen in Athen, Istanbul, Zürich, München, Köln, Mallorca .... und dazwischen auch in Schweinfurt.
Die Schweinfurter Ausstellung konzentriert sich auf Papierarbeiten von 1996 bis heute. Darunter übermalte Siebdrucke, so genannte Jet-Prints. Dabei wird ein gemaltes Bild am Pc bearbeitet und dann in einem speziellen Verfahren gedruckt, oft dienen Tüten als Druckvorlage. Wir sehen übermalte Siebdrucke und Originalaquarelle.
Keiner malt Aquarelle wir Thitz. In der rechten Hand hat er einen Pinsel, links eine Rohrfeder, damit arbeitet er gleichzeitig. Das flächige mit dem Pinsel, das zeichnerische mit der Feder. Das Malerische bringt Ruhe aufs Blatt, das Zeichnerische ist unruhig, wild, lebendig. Orientiert sich am Eindruck im Moment des Sehens. Thitz will wiedergeben, was er in diesem Moment empfindet. Das hat etwas Impressionistisches an sich. Der Versuch, das unglaubliche des Erlebens darzustellen. Und die eigene Sicht der Welt mit hineinzubringen.
Eines wollen Sie sicher noch wissen. Was heißt Thitz? Es ist sein Spitzname aus Kindertagen, den ihm seine Schwester gegeben hat.
..... Vor ein paar Tagen habe ich über einen Künstler gelesen, der auch einen ungewöhnlichen Namen hat und sich auch mit Tüten beschäftigt hat. Er nennt sich Tal R., ein Däne, der erst 2005 angefangen hat, u.a. in Plastiktüten zu sammeln, was andere weg geworfen haben, um daraus Kunst zu machen. Inzwischen ist auch für ihn die Tüte Material und Metapher. Er sammelt Dinge und Ideen, bis die Tüte für eine Arbeit voll ist. Seine Tüte ist der Kopf. Das passt auch auf Thitz.
Katharina Winterhalter (Kuratorin, Kritikerin)
Zur Ausstellung in Schweinfurt am 20. 11. 2007.
Thitz: Tütenbilder
(Laudatio zur Ausstellung "Tütenbilder" in der Galerie neue kunst, Konstanz)
Viele der Bilder von Thitz haben einen oder mehrere Henkel oder Tragschlaufen. Es handelt sich, wie der Titel dieser Ausstellung schon sagt, um "Tütenbilder". Tüten sind dazu da, um Dinge hineinzustecken und wegzutragen. Das klingt relativ einfach, ist es aber nicht. Tüten sind nämlich, genau betrachtet, sehr ver-
trackte Gegenstände - und das auf mehreren Ebenen.
Zum einen suggerieren Tüten, daß sie nur Verpackung sind, also etwas enthalten, was man aber nicht
sehen kann. Zum anderen transportieren sie selbst meist eine Botschaft, genannt Reklame. Diese Bot-
schaft wiederum verweist im einfachsten Fall ganz konkret auf den Inhalt, etwa dann, wenn aus dem Tüt-
chen die Soße auf die Hose tropft, und es steht drauf: Döner Kebab. Man hätte dann eine Tautologie im
phänomenologischen Sinne vor sich oder, besser gesagt, einen Pleonasmus, also eine überflüssige An-
reicherung.
In anderen Fällen ist es nicht ein bestimmter Gegenstand, auf den die Botschaft auf der Tüte verweist, son-
dern es findet eine Abstrahierung ersten Grades statt. Eine Marke steht für ein gewisses Spektrum an Ar-
tikeln, dessen Breite im Zeitalter sogenannter Mischkonzerne ständig zunimmt. Etwas erweitert, gehören in
diese Kategorie auch die Tüten von Händlern wie etwa einer Ladenkette oder einem Kaufhaus.
In wieder anderen Fällen soll die Botschaft gar nicht auf den Inhalt verweisen, sondern nur etwas vorspiegeln.
Dazu zählen dann beispielsweise Tüten von Prada, die später Waren von Aldi als Behältnis dienen. Es geht
hier weniger um Recycling, sondern vorrangig ums Image.
Dann sind da noch die Tüten, die eine moralische Botschaft transportieren. Sie werben für das Gute im Men-
schen und sind oft aus Jute oder Leinen.
Schließlich gibt es Tüten, die verweisen nur auf sich selbst. Sie tragen keine Aufschrift und kein Emblem.
Wenn sie eine Aufschrift trügen, würde nur "Tüte" draufstehen. Manchmal haben sie ein hübsches Muster.
In zunehmendem Maße begegnet man auch ausländischen Tüten. Sie sollen vor allem auf die Weltoffenheit
ihres Trägers hinweisen. Sie dienen - ähnlich wie das Urlaubsfoto - als Beweisstücke: Ich war schon da, wo
die Tüte herkommt, habe dort schon eingekauft.
Häufig taucht in Thitzens Bildern die Kunst- oder Museumstüte auf. Sie ist etwas ganz Besonderes, geadelt
schon durch das Wort "Kunst" oder, auf Englisch, "Art". Die Museumstüte ist ausschließlich eine Imagetüte.
Sie ist nicht dazu da, das zu transportieren, was ihre Aufschrift suggeriert, nämlich Gegenstände aus dem
Museum. Das ist eigentlich widersinnig. Man kann in sie beim ersten ursprünglichen Gebrauch nur das hi-
neinstecken, was einem das an das Museum angeschlossene Kaufhaus, nämlich der Museumsshop, an-
bietet. Das können Ausstellungskataloge sein, Pralinen, auf deren Schachtel der Mann mit dem Goldhelm
prangt, oder T-Shirts mit einem Aufdruck der Mona Lisa.
Die Mona Lisa übrigens, die Anekdote ist im Zusammenhang mit Thitzens Bildern angebracht, wurde 1962
nach Amerika verschifft, um sie dem dortigen Publikum im Original zu zeigen. Jackie Kennedy hatte dies mit
dem damaligen französischen Kulturminister André Malraux ausbaldowert. In der National Gallery in Wa-
shington besuchten in knapp einem Monat über 500000 Menschen das berühmteste Gemälde der Welt. Das
ergibt eine durchschnittliche Betrachtungszeit von 1,95 Sekunden. Anschließend in New York, im Metropo-
litan Museum, kamen über eine Million Menschen, was die Betrachtungszeit auf 0,79 Sekunden pro Be-
sucher reduzierte.
Da reicht eigentlich das T-Shirt.
Wie Museum und Kaufhaus oder Kunst und Tüte sind Museumstüte und Kaufhaustüte eng miteinander ver-
wandt, . Die Tüten, die Thitz be- und verarbeitet, sind ja nur besonders signifikante Symbole aus dem un-
übersehbaren Angebot der Warenwelt und, weil mittlerweile bekanntlich alles zur Ware geworden ist, aus
der Welt schlechthin.
Im 19. Jahrhundert gab es in Großstädten wie Paris den Flaneur, der über die Boulevards schlenderte und
durch die Kaufhäuser, wie Zola sie beschrieben hat, oder der sich in den Passagen verlor, den Vorläufern der
heutigen Shopping Malls. Die Inspiration des Flaneurs entzündete sich an den Schaufenstern mit ihrer Re-
klame und ihrem vielfältigen Angebot an Gegenständen. Diese Vielfalt und das jeweils Neueste war dem Fla-
neur Anlaß zur Kontemplation, man denke in der Literatur an Baudelaire oder Flaubert, man denke in der
bildenden Kunst an die Großstadtbilder der Impressionisten oder den grandiosen Zeichner und Grafiker
Grandville.
Die Wirklichkeit und damit die zunehmende Geschwindigkeit begannen sich damals der Kunst zu bemäch-
tigen, nicht umsonst begab sich Marcel Proust auf die Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit. Im Nachhinein be-
trachtet war es eine Logik der Geschichte, daß im 19. Jahrhundert, diesem Jahrhundert des Positivismus,
auch die Fotografie erfunden wurde. Sie erlaubte eine bis dahin noch nicht gekannte Präzision in der Abbil-
dung der Wirklichkeit. Aus der Frühzeit der Fotografie wird berichtet, daß die Menschen von dieser detail-
genauen Abbildung der Wirklichkeit viel mehr fasziniert waren als von der Wirklichkeit selbst.
Der Drang nach scheinbarer Authentizität ist seither, trotz einiger gegenläufiger Tendenzen, immer stärker
geworden. Für Spielfilme etwa wird mit dem an sich völlig absurden Argument geworben, das Geschehen
habe sich tatsächlich irgendwann einmal genau so zugetragen. Der Fotograf Andreas Gursky präsentiert im
Museum of Modern Art riesige Bilder von Supermärkten oder dem Inneren von Aktienbörsen.
Viele Künstler, vor allem solche, die mit Fotografie arbeiten, haben ein neues Werkzeug (oder Spielzeug)
entdeckt, nämlich den Computer. Er macht es leichter als früher, die aufgenommenen Realitätsfragmente so
zu verändern, daß man es nicht merkt. Solche Bilder und andere digitale Simulationen von Wirklichkeit hei-
ßen heute "virtuelle Realität".
Wichtig dabei ist, um es noch einmal zu betonen, daß man den Unterschied von sogenannter echter und
manipulierter Realität nicht merken soll. Warum eigentlich? Warum soll alles so aussehen, wie man es so-
wieso schon kennt?
Thitz hält gegen diesen Trend. Seine Malerei wuchert in die fotografische Realität hinein, bedeckt die Tüten,
die über die Fotografie geklebt sind, läßt zwischendurch Partikel dieser "echten" Realität noch aufblitzen in
Text- oder Bildfragmenten.
Die Tüte hat generell, wie erwähnt, zwei Wirklichkeitsebenen, eine äußere und eine innere. Beide müssen
nicht immer deckungsgleich sein. Es ist nicht immer das drin, was draufsteht. Zeichentheoretisch gesehen
heißt das, das Zeichen ist nicht unbedingt mit dem Bezeichneten identisch. Ein Beispiel aus der Praxis:
Wenn ein Gegenstand, der aussieht wie eine dreibeinige Marssonde aus einem Science-fiction-Comic, als
Zitruspresse bezeichnet wird, dann ist das nicht mehr als ein Witz. Man kann aber so gut wie jeden Gegen-
stand nach den eigenen individuellen Bedürfnissen und Wünschen, nach seiner eigenen Phantasie umge-
stalten. Der Gebrauchswert ist ja nur eine Möglichkeit von vielen, die Erfahrung ebenfalls. Wenn wir einen
roten Schuh sehen, nehmen wir automatisch an - die Erfahrung lehrt es uns -, daß der zweite Schuh auch
rot sein muß. Er kann, muß aber nicht. Er kann zum Beispiel auch gelb sein.
Die Methode von Thitz ist im Grunde einfach, aber genau deshalb umso wirkungsvoller: Er infiziert die Wirk-
lichkeit mit Kunst. Und es ist zu hoffen, daß dieser Infekt so ansteckend wie möglich ist.
Thitz' Museum Bags
A museum one can unfortunately not carry away. This could only work in our thoughts, as a small model or as a cut-out and stick-together modelling sheet packed in a bag. But the other way round it’s possible: a bag can easily get into a museum, can be folded and stacked neatly or it can make space for itself by swelling, jostling in and spreading out. It has the advantage that one can carry something in it, even if it’s only air and it transports a visible message in the print on it. That’s its strength which none of the other important exhibits can live up to. What keeps us from declaring it to be a museum object in itself? Bags are objects of everyday life which we encounter daily like other common things, e.g.shoes, umbrellas, caps and coins, pipes and pots, all items which we can look at in the glass show-cases of museums. Why not bags? Especially Thitz Bags: his bags aren’t normal ones. They are bags that act individually, with an inner personal life, not homogenous trivial bags printed by the thousands with the same request "Eat fresh fruit and vegetables", they are more subversive bags with logos like "happy and rich", "rich but lonely", bags on which beautiful girls lounge or shrill guys inquisitively examine the bag-viewer. Thitz has built himself a Bag World pulsating and buzzing with life, an empire full of high voltage energy, humour, satire and cunning. Is there anything better for a museum – this grumpy know-all old spinster – than a fresh gust of cheeky wind blowing through its stuffy rooms? The Museum of the City of Waiblingen which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2001 never was a child of sadness, from the beginning it went its own way, showed alternatives, cut old tails and ventured on new territory. This was not a guarantee for absolute safety, rather the opposite: we couldn’t know where the next step would take us to. At times there was interference from the left then again from the right, yet we followed our long way undisturbed through the jungle of rusty opinions. Now after 10 years the hard cut jungle trail has become a path on which we can walk comfortably and can contemplate the rare and beautiful things at its sides. One first goal has been reached, one race won. Unknown lands lie before us, which we want to cross but not conquer.The vanguard to venture into these strange lands Thitz Museum Bags shall be. They are cheerful ambassadors of a peaceful world, downright critical but not offensive. They took over the museum, nested in it and contributed self-confidently to it. In their special way they make us aware of our work and create a new complacency which softens old ways of thinking and acting and mixes them with new ideas of perception. Through this new dimensions are created which boost our impetus for discovery, giving us the opportunity to see and judge things differently. We never stop learning and that is good so because what would our lives be like if we’d know it all?
It would be meaningless and superfluous. Therefore: Bags to the Museum!
Helmut Herbst Director of the Museum Waiblingen
Thitz – the city, the human being and yet the bag
Two years ago and since then the work of Thitz´, which uses in manifold ways every unnoticed thing, the collected, the thrown away, the found again, circled around the big theme of a city with many, say countless people: Bag City. Centred and weighty, this theme stood and stands in the inexhaustible fantasy-cycle of Thitz´ world of paintings, which winks at us, takes us aback and makes us discoverers, lets us smile silently on the wit and on the irony that always favours the positive – yet acknowledging the negative side of our existence, not repressing it. And with the big dimensioned urban spirit the human being is the focus of Thitz´ attention.
In the countless objects it’s the one who is linked to the thing-like of our existence and its historic dimension; in the bags from all over the world, which interlace Thitz´ work as an essential constant factor functioning as both carrier and former of paintings and as compositor of emphasis, it is the one of the past and present, reflecting in the bag-existence, which identifies itself with the bag just as it lets itself be identified and located: show me your bag and I tell you who you are (by which the bag cult hardly knows social boundaries).
In Bag City it’s the one who engraves the face of the city and through which the face of he Big Bag City is engraved.
Two years ago and since then Bag City was the big city of New York – Big Apple, which in Thitz´ world of paintings gave the modern urban spirituality a means of expressing itself, however in the specific way of Thitz´ view of architecture, culture – even the one of the bags and bag-carriers, too, and with them on the life in and with a metropolis. This is imprinted on the faces of the silently smiling, pensive, seemingly knowing and in abeyance with oneself being Bag-City-Inhabitant, whose individuality approaches the archetype of an urban one.
They bustle about in different notabilities of importance as part of the architecture, structure, being enclosed in it, one with it, but also being themselves. All that constitutes Bag City, constitutes also Thitz´ human beings: stationary and yet in motion, in the glow of the lights, the hectic of traffic, the billowing of life. And that’s how Thitz saw the city and them: in a flowing drawing, like a mirage and yet with a steady outline at the same time: square the circle of static and motion.
But only in one of the paintings of those days is the metropolis Big Apple New York, at least partly to be perceived in its individual features, derived out of a huge photograph of New York which has become carrier of Thitz´ line and colour scaffolds and which in some parts shines through Thitz´ canon of colour and form. In comparison to that the other Thitz´ Bag City paintings are rather freed associations of the things seen and gone through by the artist, that mirror the experience of a metropolis.
Of late Thitz has consequently followed this way he took in his works. Next to all, whatsoever comes into being as objects and most of all acuarells of the theme thing and human being – hereby thinking of the further development of work complexes like the Swazi frieze or the Bag Series -, Thitz´ city paintings and that means also Bag City cut outs are of central importance.
In them the artist shows himself as carrier of global city experiences: Rome – Frankfurt – London - New York – Hongkong and others, and with it carrier of global knowledge of human beings – and life. The artistically drawn conclusions are visible in Thitz´ canon of a metropolis.
Huge photos of cities become acetates, on which accents of these experiences can be placed. And they are as yet of typical Thitz´ manner of drawingly painting, unique to his work; in the placing of important sized humans and beings, which now and then carry the architecture on their heads – St. Pauls Cathedral in London -, or even becoming living architecture themselves – in the Bag Museum of Art, a dream-like amorphous Art of building à la New York Art Landscape; in the unveiling of things with urban importance through cut outs of the equal urban important bags; and last not least in the metamorphosis of factual prosaic city expressions to a field of discovery, observations cheerful yet also making us thoughtful in the play of architectural forms – look at the roofs -, with the furnishing of the city – who isn’t aware of the countless bill boards, - fluorescent lamps, banners and who doesn’t know Hongkong´s famous shop “Tops + Flops”.
Wit and irony once and for all are Thitz´ sharpest tools in the new order of town-planning according to his concept.
But Thitz´ view on the cities has changed. Real aspects of the huge photographs remain visible in contrast to the painted interpretation by the artist. Recognition has advanced to an important component of his city paintings. Yet at the same time the contrast to the earlier “city views” will be rather a getting to the point of the critical aspect of our urban perception., getting down to the denominator of the tourist: the Tower of London, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, Mona Lisa. The reduction of our experience of the world to the highlights has not stopped at our world-city-experience and even worse: the cities have succumbed to the interests of the global players and are becoming a monotonous accumulation of monotonous architecture, which allows the world traveller to feel just the same degree of “at home”, because he knows them all already, even before he’s seen or encountered them. Perhaps one can then do without the encounter. What other then giving in to this master of trends and to going through this virtually limitless world-experience (what a contradiction lies here in the going through) is the nearest drawn conclusion? In the WWW everywhere and nowhere at home.
However this new city-view, -in-sight and –look has also hopeful aspects of a rebelling aspiration after individual freedom in the shaping of ones own life, although this is at some places only expressed by the difference of roof-landscapes full of fantasy, which reach from the stair-pyramid to the papyrus-blossom-body, while the physique of the building submits itself to pragmatically functionality. Perhaps we must go with Thitz into the streets filled with life of those cities he looked at to meet the peculiarity of the cultures, which seem to get lost more and more in the overall view of the city.
At least in the 7 Bags of Rome, which Thitz symbolically placed next to the given geographic facts of the Holy City and which face the viewer as the 7 most important inhabitants of the centre piece on the uttermost fringe of the Scene Romanum, the global individuality from Monti to Armani of the colours that can be found in all large cities of the world, is forcefully obvious.
Well, Rome is not Hongkong or New York, but almost three thousand year lasting history of urban architecture, structure and city-life, at a dignified age equipped with character, which is hardly to be noticed in the so-called modern way of our global capital cities.
So Thitz´ city paintings are a piece of drawingly painted philosophising on the present and the future of our cities and at the same time of ourselves. He opens with them in his very own lively way the possibility to a fertile dialogue about a theme that moves us all daily (e.g. Stuttgart 21, Frankfurt 21, Waiblingen 21 and other vision 21s of urban life).
Otto Pannewitz 2001
Director of the City Gallery of Sindelfingen, Lütze Museum
Thitz Project: Diaolgue of Arts and Politics
"Art is the language to designate the intangible reality. Thus art becomes present-time research”.
Arts and politics have a common parameter; the ethics of responsibility, competence, and the freedom to make the right decisions are essential maxims of conduct of either one.
“Let us put it like this: What makes a spiritual value, i.e. a significant value, significant , is its rising beyond itself, being the expression and exponent of an overall spirituality, of an entire realm of emotions and sentiments, which has found in this value its own, more or less perfect symbol: The degree of its importance will be assessed accordingly.”
(Thomas Mann)
Any democratic society is dependant on arts as well as on politics. Both are seismographic for the success or the failure of a progress-bearing future; otherwise the term “future” may turn into a threat.
Today’s artists have learned to confront society with questions instead of depicting questions society is asking them.
Dialogue between arts and politics – an aesthetic process
The term “dialogue” comes from the Greek word “dialogos” and is a purely pedagogic achievement of the Greek “akademia”, meaning one’s readiness to exchange thoughts and positions with those of others while undergoing a learning process.
A-P-D (Arts, Politics, Dialogue) lost its “D” and shrank to a mere A-P in all dictatorships.
National Socialism and Communist dictatorships have furnished stirringly negative examples of arts and politics void of dialogue by depriving them both of their freedom. The doctrines of those systems combined both fields into a yoke for citizens. The prohibition of trade unions, bans on scientists and artists were the result of mass manipulation with the purpose of extinguishing people’s own identities and of subsequently destroying them as human beings.
Consequently, the degenerate society became a perverted mirror of degenerate art.
Dialogue is a distinctive characteristic of Thitz’ work. This dialogue means a description of personal history as an environmental experience. Thitz facilitates such dialogue by means of documentation, compilation, and depiction of his impressions and their review by communication.
Thitz is not a theorist, but a man of action, a painter. His painting obtains its communicative energies from the integration of dialogue.
“Art is the language to designate the intangible reality. Thus art becomes present-time research”.
Thitz himself is clad in the colors of his paintings so that his outer appearance serves as some individual piece of identification and as an acknowledgement of his identity. This makes other individuals more easily accessible and stimulates dialogues.
Thitz actively integrates his arts into society. This colorful bird-catcher and bird-seller, a “Papageno” of intermediation, puts art into circulation within society in an honest and cheerful way.
His pictures show characteristics of letters and diaries. He relates his life to his present time and thus to his contemporaries. His very picturesque “Bag Book” is an invitation to join him on many a journey.
The sensation of uniqueness arising from Thitz’ works is touching, because the basic principle of our emotional relations with life is inherent in it.
To create this uniqueness is what the artist endeavors after in his repeated efforts to capture the image of verity. The beauty of truth to life in arts lies in the truth itself, in the sincerity approachable to anyone.
We have a particular innate filter through which we take in the world around us, closely linked to our experience of life. This helps us train our capability to communicate.
Arts and politics, a dialogue, is the focus of an extensive project by Thitz that will continue to approach more parties and parliamentary groups, since Thitz, the initiator of this project, takes all his bearings from the dialogue of arts and society, both of which require freedom to achieve self-realization.
“The title is the content”.
His projects at home and abroad are akin to stage productions of reality, comprising existing and fictitious realities as art.
Developing forms and their antitheses is typical of Thitz’ forgoing the academic meticulosity of art history. This leaves room for a wide scope of associations, for creating a serene, ironical depiction of real or virtual experiences as an indispensable loss of reality.
“As we all know, the loss of reality is not a loss at all, since there is no reality”(Tarkowski) - but it can be established by means of art.
To Thitz, art means communication – life itself, with nothing in-between.
He communicates with all his fellow men, with German politicians as well as with farmers in Ecuador. The painted bags are his vernacular to tell fragmentary stories about this very life, about everyday occurrence. They are no single, self-contained, detached art objects. They listen and respond, being the language which – as the yellow ‘Tom Thumb’ hopes – will enable him to depict a “Something” at least faintly reminiscent of a global society.
The dialogue between arts and politics marks the encouraging beginning of a new artistic trend, which I personally have been missing a great deal in present-day society.
Professor Sotirios Michou
Stuttgart, 1996
Essay in the catalogue "Bag Art" 2008 published by the Cultural Center of the city of athens and clean up greece. The exhibition at the Cultural Center of the city of Athens was curated by Mrs. Angela Dikeoulia (Gallery Art Cargo A.Dikeoulia, Athens)
Essay in the catalogue "Bag Art" 2008 published by the Cultural Center of the city of athens and clean up greece. The exhibition at the Cultural Center of the city of Athens was curated by Mrs. Angela Dikeoulia (Gallery Art Cargo A.Dikeoulia, Athens)
Essay in the catalogue "Bag Art" 2008 published by the Cultural Center of the city of athens and clean up greece. The exhibition at the Cultural Center of the city of Athens was curated by Mrs. Angela Dikeoulia (Gallery Art Cargo A.Dikeoulia, Athens)
