Martina R. Czeran Paintings
Parts of the introduction to the exhibition in the townhall of Königstein 2015 by Gregor Maier (MA) Head of Dept. of Culture, Hochtaunuskreis
…The geometric composition of the work plays a major role in her paintings. The paintings are clearly connected and ordered. The clearly demarcated color areas give the paintings a strong sense of structure. Through this the artist has a keen sense of the image, which is always carefully chosen with weight and proportion – an architect might say: the static is balanced…
When I stress the meaning of geometry, it is not to say the paintings are technically constructed in a cold and calculated manner and not only the artist is depending on the surface color and form. The opposite is the case: the paintings which we see here are full of empathy and affection, full of stories and thoughts…
We find this sympathy of the artist for what she paints in many works. Possibly in her – often stout – women`s figures and also in the paintings of the pigs. These are no naturel studies, but absolutely serious portraits. The pigs whom the vegetarian Czeran paints meet us as individual creatures, almost as personalities. The position of the artist finds expression in the wonderful painting title for the work with the woman riding on a camel: Be Proud And Live Happily. This seems to be almost the motto which the painter wants to call to her models….
In the empathy which the viewer can easily connect with, come the stories which we can possibly see in the paintings. Quite involuntarily one proceeds to look and search for the context of an action which forms the basis of the shown moment…
What is it with theses desert paintings? What is this small red tin within these ornamental paintings –what does it all mean? The paintings are more than what they seem, they are more than a poster with a message. They are riddles, an invitation for the imagination to reflect. In a sense I would call this art totally talkative.
Not necessarily in the sense that the artist has a decisive message which she wants to provide for us in her pictorial language. Rather we are the ones that are invited to discover messages in the paintings which is something that concern us. The paintings of Martina Czeran give us associations, stories, imaginations and thoughts which resonate within us.
With these three points – architecture, empathy and the narrative of a good story – I would like to leave it open. To take seriously – this work is not dependent on explanation one viewer stands, but allowing the viewer to read in their own interpretation.
The paintings are an invitation for dialogue and are also an invitation for live conversation in front of them and that is now what I warmly invite you to do.