ABOUT:
Artist Jörg Madlener incorporates a deeply philosophical aspect into his works. He sees a correlation between commercial art forces and political forces, in particular those that bring about war. The commercial value assigned to an artist’s work determines whether that artist’s legacy ‘lives’ or ‘dies’: a political entity’s power determines whether a neighboring culture ‘lives’ or ‘dies’. Both are ultimately unrelated to any intrinsic value.

The individual artist is buffeted by these forces his entire life. ‘Art is a rope that can raise one to spectacular heights — or else can serve as a hangman’s noose.’ The four artists who Madlener feels most keenly experienced the pernicious effects of commerce and politics and their various combinations, each of whom has received a philosophico/artistic treatment in a series of paintings, are Gustav Mahler, Robert Musil, Paul Celan and Jackson Pollock.