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introduction
Since 2006 Elisabeth Sonneck has been showing her canvas works and large sheets of painted paper in sitespecific installations. Her physical approach merges space, viewer's movements and color. In the exhibition situation, her paintings are always part of a temporary environmental space - here we focus on them in individual images.
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ELISABETH SONNECK | IN THE ARTIST'S STUDIO
BERLIN, GERMANY -
Elisabeth Sonneck, Installation view 2020, Scrollpainting84 quinte (2019)
Photo: Alistair OverbruckRitardando - In Color
Installation view 2020, scrollpainting84 quinte (2019)Ritardando is a musical term meaning a gradual decrease in speed. A sense of slowing down describes Sonneck’s considered and meticulous processes, facilitating her exploration into the physical relations of form and color in space.
Sonneck’s practice is a dialogue between the intrinsic properties of her materials and situational elements of space, light, environment, and audience. Her paper installations—often standing upright in a scroll, rolled across the floor, or suspended and unfurling from a height—are a subtle manipulation of the material, guiding it into new and unique forms while allowing its weight, texture, and material tension to behave in organic ways.
On the paper and canvas surfaces, layers of paint interact and nuanced color relations play out in rhythmic repetition. “The fundamental fact of color,” says Sonneck, is that “color can never be exactly defined, named or remembered.” Color and form, and our relation to them, are redefined by each new context.
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Fragile Forms in Space: An Interview with Elisabeth Sonneck
We had the pleasure of talking with artist Elisabeth Sonneck in her Berlin studio. In this interview, we talk to Sonneck about her process, her love of paper, and the spatial relationships that make each installation of her works unique.
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Clipage (variable)
Layered, bent, and clipped together, original paintings on glassine paper are juxtaposed with reproductions. These assemblages continue Sonneck’s exploration of color and the innate qualities of paper while introducing new concepts through the photocopying process. “They deal with issues of visibility and absence, of original, reproduction, and identity.”
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clipage series
Layered, bent, and clipped together, original paintings on glassine paper are juxtaposed with reproductions. These assemblages continue Sonneck’s exploration of color and the innate qualities of paper while introducing new concepts through the photocopying process. “They deal with issues of visibility and absence, of original, reproduction, and identity.”
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Clipage (Variables)
Photo: Jochen Wehrmann -
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"Paper is a simple, everyday material. Everyone thinks they know it... but it can still show new properties. Neither expensive nor exclusive, it does not impress with material preciousness. I adore the purity and poverty, the fragility and flexibility of paper."
Elisabeth Sonneck
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Oil paintings
Maeander19 / 1, 2018On her canvases is where Sonneck’s deliberate brushwork and her experimentation with color can most clearly be observed. Steady and repetitious strokes of paint, varying in length and opacity, produce rhythmic bands of layered color unique to each piece.
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Maeander series
Photo: Achim Kleuker -
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Five Strokes
Five Strokes11 / 3, 2017 Oil on canvas
60 x 60 cm.
23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in. -
“Colors always react with one another and emerge from their specific context. Working with color means working in dialogue.”
ELISABETH SONNECK
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Five strokes series
Photo: Achim Kleuker -
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antiphon
antiphon black light7 / 1, 2017 Oil on canvas
145 x 145 cm.
57 1/8 x 57 1/8 in. -
“For each brushstroke, a multitude of decisions flows into the painting process, such as the opacity, fluidity, and saturation of paint, but above all, the color nuances that I mix and often modify.”
Elisabeth Sonneck
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Antiphone series
Photo: Achim Kleuker -
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Scroll paintings
Sonneck’s scrollpaintings honor the physical characteristics of her everyday materials. Whether standing in a scroll, rolled across the floor, or hanging by a counterweight construction, these painted paper works contain an inherent dynamic tension and infinite potential for unique relations between form, color, space, and viewer.
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Scroll paintings
Sonneck’s scrollpaintings honor the physical characteristics of her everyday materials. Whether standing in a scroll, rolled across the floor, or hanging by a counterweight construction, these painted paper works contain an inherent dynamic tension and infinite potential for unique relations between form, color, space, and viewer.
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“These paper-installations are not solid, “crystallized” sculptures; they are flexible and in a fragile physical balance. They emerge simultaneously from the material tension of the paper and the process of shaping them by hand on-site.”
Elisabeth Sonneck
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Scrollpainting Series
Photo: Jochen Wehrmann -
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PRESS RELEASE
RITARDANDO - IN COLOR
ONLINE EXHIBITION
DECEMBER 9, 2020 - JANUARY 11, 2021
Rounding off the year, the Ronewa Art Projects online viewing room showcases works by Berlin-based artist Elisabeth Sonneck. Sonneck’s painting and installation practice spans infinite forms, united by her rigorous commitment to the inherent potential of her materials.
Ritardando is a musical term meaning a gradual decrease in speed. The notion of slowing down is fitting as a broad reflection on the change of pace in many areas of life in 2020. Slowness, as it relates to Sonneck’s practice, describes her considered and meticulous processes and facilitates her exploration into the physical relations of form and color in space.
Download Press Release
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Elisabeth Sonneck installing a scrollpainting. Photo: Yang Rui
About the Artist
Elisabeth Sonneck was born in Bünde, Germany, and lives and works in Berlin. She studied sculpture and has held several art academy teaching positions and led curatorial projects that focus on color and space. Since 2006, her practice has focused on site-specific interventions with wall paintings and large-scale paper installations. Her work has been widely shown in museums, art institutions, galleries, artist-run spaces, and public spaces and is included in private and public collections worldwide.
Elisabeth Sonneck: Berlin | Ritardando - In Color
Past viewing_room
