Jonas Burgert Lot n° 50

Jonas Burgert Deception 2010 Oil on canvas 350 x 250 cm. Signed, dated and titled '- Täuschung - 2010 Jonas Burgert' verso on canvas. - With studio marks. Daniel Schreiber (ed.), Jonas Burgert, Lebendversuch, exhib. cat. Kunsthalle Tübingen and others, Cologne 2011, WVZ no. 116 Provenance Acquired directly from the artist (2010); private collection, Berlin "Jonas Burgert's paintings bring together a panopticon of depictions that enigmatically thematize the hidden behind the visible and stage the compositional structure like a cryptic play. [...] His mostly large-format compositions are thus dedicated to nothing less than the drama of life, the history of mankind and the world. The painterly explorations are in the tradition of the centuries-old motif of world theater (Theatrum mundi), in which the world becomes a stage, life becomes a play, man becomes a player." (Hans-Peter Wipplinger, in: Jonas Burgert, Lebendversuch, Cologne 2011, p.75). The monumental painting "Deception" is best characterized by this description of the "world theater". A diverse cast of numerous androgynous figures act in an enigmatically nested theater setting made of half-collapsed brick walls. A monstrous giant sits in the middle of this backdrop, but the general activity is concentrated on a figure in the center of the picture, who is held and directed by the others on strings like a marionette. A figure wrapped in white cloth with a globe in her hands is watching the action, reminiscent of the mythical Sibyls, prophetesses of antiquity. Physiognomies and costumes cannot be assigned to any time or space, the proportions of the figures vary according to the model of medieval painting and indicate different hierarchical levels. Jonas Burgert's fantastic pictorial cosmos, with its multi-layered allusions and riddles, awaits the individual interpretations of the viewer.