CORNELIA BALTES
On warm summer days, many enjoy resting in the park, looking up at the skies and imagining what the clouds resemble.
Where one person sees a dog, someone else will find a bouquet of flowers.
Others will simply see a cloud.
What this simple example tells us is that the line between figurative and abstract is not always clearly defined.
Some people see patterns and figures in the seemingly abstract, while other simply enjoy the colours and composition.
In the late 1960s, French philosopher Roland Barthes made the now famous claim that “the author is dead”.
Before this, the interpretation of an artwork would be based in the author or artist’s intention behind the book, music piece or work of art.
After Barthes proclaimed the author to be irrelevant, a piece’s meaning was instead determined by the audience: If the person looking at a painting finds it meaningful, it has meaning. The artist’s intention is considered unimportant.
Since Barthes, the power relation between artist and audience has shifted (which is very ironic, as this had been Barthes’ intention, thus contradicting the very purpose of his text).
Cornelia Baltes’ work, currently on display at Andréhn-Schiptjenko in Stockholm, is open to interpretation.
Some observers might be intrigued by the aesthetics of her work – the sleekness of the lines and her graphic use of colour – while others will see fingers pointing and hands curving.
This is part of what gives her paintings their longevity – just like a cloud, the meaning appears to be shifting, from nothing at all – merely beautiful shapes – to suddenly making sense; two hands meeting or a face seemingly in motion.
Her minimalist approach to composition in large-scale paintings is enhanced by her techniques, using a combination of brushwork and airbrushing. This is something Baltes has been working with for almost a decade; to find an expression that is as precise as possible.
I have often been hesitant to interviewing artists and designers. Isn’t it enough that they are excellent at what they do, why should they also have to be able to put their creative practice into words?
The academization of art is not inherently positive.
Also, thinking of Barthes’ proposal to silence to author, what happens when the artist’s view is added to the work?
When I ask Baltes about this, she seems, at least initially, to agree with Barthes:
“As a person, I can be quite shy with other people, and so I find it easier to let my work do the talking and being bold. I also find the debate between high art and low art difficult because I felt, at least a few years ago, that you had to have this pathos to do be a big painter, and I’m really not like that. And I really hate this about art. I also find the division between ‘high art’ and ‘lowly design’, putting fine art on a super high pedestal, very difficult and not fair to design. I like it when art is approachable.”
The ambition to let a piece speak for itself is clear when viewing her art, which has an immediate quality, drawing the viewer into its world.
Her pieces are difficult to turn away from, but they are demanding in a subtle and non-intimidating way, as they invite you in to look closer, to try to figure out what the lines represent.
When I ask Baltes about her process, she again hesitates, before explaining:
“I can’t approach my work too straightforward; I feel like I have to approach it almost diagonally. I don’t know exactly how to say this, but only in this way can I start my work; if I don’t forcefully do my work. My source material is always a lot of sketches, sketchbooks, and other materials that I create just for myself in the studio. I really need to not think about anything or anyone when I start the process.”
Baltes claim that she needs to step away from the world is in line with the discourse of art existing in its own right. Today, it is often said that art has a deeper meaning, often political: The relevance of art is found in how it engages with the audience, how it provokes and engages people in ideologically marked discussions.
But this idea that art should have a purpose turns art into a form of design, where the overarching aim is to simply communicate a specific message.
Baltes summarizes her resistance to the idea that art always has a meaning:
“What’s interesting about art is that it’s not so straightforward. It’s a bit more complex, or goes in a circle, where design is a bit straighter. Often art doesn’t have a message.”
The distinction between art and design is interesting in regards to Cornelia Baltes, as she is also trained as a graphic designer, as well as having experimented with photography.
Early in her art studies, she would produce more figurative oil paintings.
During a tutorial with a Dutch artist, something shifted, and instead of turning away from her previous training, she began to incorporate her previous practices into her work as an artist:
“I think the Dutch perhaps are more open to design and art meeting, to the whole spectrum of the artistic language. Maybe before, I had an idea of how painting should be, and I tried to do something where I wasn’t, and my language wasn’t. I had also studied graphic design and I had a certain use of working with composition in photography, and arranging things and working with colour. And I had already done all of this in my sketchbook, but my paintings were this big mess of oil paint. And the tutor simply asked, ‘why do you try to paint like someone who only has painted the last twenty years? Why don’t you take the things that you are already doing?’”
And so, instead of turning away from what she had learned in design and photography, she drew from her existing skills and added them into her artistic practice, thus creating the minimalist, borderline abstract imagery that today is her trademark.
At Andhrén-Schiptjenko, the patterns, shapes and colours in Baltes’ paintings are set in dialogue with the gallery room itself, as also the walls have been painted and turned into an extension of Baltes’ artworld.
She explains: “I prepared the works for this exhibition, they’re all new. I tried to work with the space. I had an idea about how I wanted to install the works; I let the paintings grow out of the canvas. But the paintings stand on their own. I had a visual concept, rather than a concept that I can put in words. My work is often between figuration and abstraction, and I feel I went a bit more abstract in this last show. My approach is always very playful, I start somewhere and then it comes together.”
The exhibition is open until June 22.
