Frischzelle_13: Markus Amm

Markus Amm (b. 1969 in Stuttgart) poses elementary questions about painting: How does priming modify the picture carrier? How does a spatial illusion emerge from the simplest of media? What is a painted line capable of in contrast to a connection between two canvases that, however, optically functions like a line?

Amm repeatedly applies layers of chalk priming onto a canvas, until every trace of the textile ground disappears. In another work he draws delicate lines onto a barely primed canvas and consequently brings the material carrier to the center of our attention. He also experiments with other picture carriers and has, for years now, produced photograms that result from direct illumination. His minimalist formal language borrows from Constructivism and questions the assumptions of the avant-garde.