Art Blog #60: Unveiling Emotions: Unfinished Traces in Modern Abstract Art

Hello,

my name is Günther Brandl and this is my artistic story.

The motivation to paint and draw was ignited in me at an early age. As a child, my father always took me to nature and our hometown to draw together. Inspired by my father's artistic example, I soon began to search for my own forms of expression as a teenager, to convey my feelings and thoughts. I was strongly interested in the world of Surrealism and Expressionism at that time. Later in my studies, influences of Fantastic Realism and Political Realism were added.

After my studies, I worked for many years as a class teacher at a special school for adolescents with emotional and social development problems. Due to work, family, and sports, my artistic ambitions took a back seat for many years. However, I took valuable and formative experiences from both fields for my artistic work, which I resumed about 10 years ago. This is how the exploration of broken development can be found.

The unfinished and unstable reveals itself either in abstract and emotionally driven impulsive gestures, but also in my rather minimalistic work results. The line work and color application are often passionate and unrestrained. In some works, linear structures can also be seen, reminiscent of doodling or writing, but showing no recognizable signs. 'Traces' and 'findings' as non-representative representatives of actions, experiences, or emotions have become the leitmotif of my work. Emotionally linked 'traces' are for me what remains in us of what we experience with all our senses and determines our perception. Sometimes, it's just snippets and fragments that remain, that truly leave an 'impression'. In my work, I try to process and make visible the emotions connected to my impressions and the associations that arise in the work process. The starting point is often frottage.

Nature with its manifestations, colors, and details, but also scenarios of threat, serve as another essential trigger and drive for my work. Societal developments and interpersonal themes also continue to emerge. My particular interest lies in the aesthetic dimension of processes of destruction and new beginnings, decline and reorganization, withering and blossoming. These processes do not only occur in succession, but can also be effective or observable simultaneously on an object or a person, and find their visual expression.

In the creative process, color traces and line structures, collages and objects arise more or less consciously on this basis, processing the original impressions or the past, often taking their own paths and establishing new connections. I welcome accidents in this process. Most of my work is created entirely intuitively, determined by my emotional state and experiences, without real-life motives influencing the imagery. There is no process of abstraction based on images from real life.

I am drawn to the enigmatic openness of abstract art and see the results of the work as portals for self-observation and free interpretation. They invite the viewer to allow their own emotions and memories, to discover new things, or simply to indulge in the aesthetic appeal.

Günther Brandl