Jürgen Partenheimer: Lichtschwarm

An exhibition of work by Jürgen Partenheimer at White Cube’s Bermondsey gallery. This exhibition, his first in London, includes paintings, sculpture, unique ceramics and works on paper dating from 1975−2017.

Partenheimer’s abstract works are characterised by their variable, multidimensional language of forms, lightness of touch, striking use of colour and poetic approach. Following studies in fine art, art history and philosophy, he first showed at Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh in 1979 and then gained international recognition following his participation in the biennials of Paris (1980), São Paulo (1981) and Venice (1986). He was the first artist-curator at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf from 1977−80 and the founding director of the Institute of Phenomenology.

Partenheimer uses reduction, asymmetry and imperfection in his work to propose alternative modes of perception. These are partly the result of the artist’s engagement with and contribution to a broader theoretical discourse. In his paintings forms circulate around an undefined space − a ‘nothingness’ − and seem to have the potential to dissolve and reform at any moment. This open-ended quality is evident in all the works in this exhibition. As Rudi Fuchs has noted in his essay on the painting La Fortune (2012), which is titled after the painting La Fortune (1938) by Man Ray, this creative instability offers an altogether different path to abstraction, which is commonly so rooted in controlled composition.