Von Holger Bunk

My lecture will be about the fact, that already being a pinter I had to learn how much I relate to other artists as prototypes and role models. That used to happen very subconscious first. But I discovered the possibility to refer to images of other artists and periods. — By showing many of my paintings today I hope it can be an amusing game to find out which connections to other art works one might find. I even hope this can be inspiring.

As I said before, I had thought in the beginning that all my ideas and attitudes were very personal. But the longer I work as a painter I have to give in that my painting is much more some kind of “reflection” than genuine creation.

When finally the “Walraf Richartz Museum” in Cologne invited me to give my comment to its famous collection of drawings from German Romanticism, I finally had a reason to take a closer look on those subconscious influences in my own work. Although I had not known the museum’s drawings in particular to my surprise I found there were many analogies.

Let us now start with this kind of visual self- reflection. It may be a very “Western” problematic that leeds to my struggle with the concept of the artist as a “genius”. I Western art one has to be the first one to to something. But I found out that very often in painting you cannot be the “first one”. So my idea about the painted image is much more something lie giving an new “pin” or tendency to something you found in tradition or art history.

This might be an aspect of my work that comes close to the concept of “traditional” or “oriental” painting in Asian cultures. And I would like to discuss that with you.