Another Favorite Artist: Lars Theuerkauff

My new gallery, Cain Schulte, has a sister gallery in Berlin with the same name.  When there's a chance for confusion, we refer to ourselves as Cain Schulte SF or Cain Schulte Berlin.  Marina Cain is my partner here in San Francisco, and Kit Schulte is the director in Berlin.  For all practical purposes, we operate as two separate galleries, but one thing we cooperate on is finding and sharing new artists.

Last year, Kit discovered a painter in Berlin named Lars Theuerkauff.  He is in his early 40s and was trained first as a painter, then as a filmmaker, directing and producing a number of well-regarded short and feature-length films in Germany, before returning to painting recently.  We were lucky enough to get a number of his portraits for our recent San Francisco group show of portraiture ID Redux.  


Instead, here are a few of his works.  They are all acrylic on linen, all 30cm x 40cm (roughly 12" by 16").  


What draws me to them is both the subject matter and the technique.  The subjects look like they are painted from photos, or even webcam shots, something you might find on the craigslist m4m listings.  The glow from the brightly lit laptop display lighting the subject from below with bright spots and soft shadows.  The two below seem like a matched pair -- front and back, maybe of the same guy.  This is all conjecture, of course, but it's what I think of when I see them.

The other thing that fascinates me about his paintings is his technique.  From across the room they look like normal photo-realist paintings.  Up close, however, the images are composed of splattered spots of paint, a kind of unstructured pointillism.  Maybe like a messy Georges Seurat, not bothered with the new "science" of painting to reflect photons and the optical properties of light which was the source of pointillist theory.

As I understand it, Lars uses no paint brushes in his work.  His technique involves implements and tools that splatter, as well as colanders, screens, and things he can spray or splash paint through.  His control of placing the color is amazing.  The following picture and a close-up detail show the technique better.  (Come to the gallery to see it in person, though, for the real effect!)

Lars' background in film has given him a sense of light and realism.  From across the room, you think these are photos.  Only upon closer examination do you see the amazing technique.  One day I will have a Lars Theuerkauff (or two) in my collection.  And you should too.  Lars' work will be back in San Francisco for our Inaugural Show coming up in April at our new location.  More news coming soon!


Cheers!