​CLAIRE ​​MESNIL 

The central subject of the picture is a woman reading, a familiar subject of the visual arts.  Her gaze directs the viewer to the book she holds in her hands: “The Book of Wanda”.

 

Placed completely to the left of the pictures edge, the reading woman is shown as a bust portrait in semi-profile. She rests, more lying than sitting, a red pillow in her back, relaxed in a large brown upholstered chair, her arms comfortably supported on the  armrests. A just barely visible tip of the knee indicates crossed legs.  

 

From the opened book, a small strange object flies away, which is familiar to the viewer from the series “Himmelsstürmer” (Stormers of the sky). There we meet archaic looking objects, which look like they were put together from randomly found bits and pieces, which miraculously all can do one thing, although nothing seems unlikely for them: They can fly. Aerial light roughly knocked together objects float through into the light.  They can fly. In this painting, the artist puts one of these little Himmelstürmers in a narrative context for the first time.  We remember the motto of the Himmelsstürmers, a Peter Pan quotation: “Think a nice thought, and you can fly”. The wings, which can be imparted to the imagination by literature, have become here a form and image. They are completely manifest in the object, which reminds us of a small ark and whose wings appear tinkered from the pages of the book.

 

Released by the reading of a book, thoughts float, carrying their own realm with them, dreaming themselves out over boundaries and time. Their flight always goes toward  light. Thus the woman sits in front of a sky-like background, which one cloud band, illuminated by the sun passes. Formally the woman sits in an armchair in front of the lights focus in the far left of the picture. From there, the cloud band draws a streak of light to the top right of the picture, which, at the same time, determines the direction of the viewers gaze. The connection to the cosmic is supported by the stardust, which the Himmelsstürmer swirls out with its flight from the opened book pages.

 

The bright colour palette of the sky can be found on the reader and the wings of the small object. Thus both are clearly assigned unambiguously to the spheres. Armchair, cushion, book backs and object body, on the other hand, are exclusively self-coloured and thus stand for the earthbound. Last but not least, this painting stands for the cosmic dual principle in which the existence of the One is not conceivable without the other.

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©Helga-Isabella Lorentz, art historian

All rights reserved

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