Art Auction Ketterer Kunst, Hamburg
Prehistoric Fire, 2007. Lot: 1037.
Talberg’s Mythology
For Talberg painting & sculpting is a perpetual problem to be constantly
readdressed and never solved like creating the perfect square out of
circles. There is an implicit tension in his work between what he sees
as the intrinsic conservatism of his media and his own explicitly stated
politically anarchic leanings. He employs techniques such as the »
Rotary Processus« which transfers the 4-elemental dissonance of the
Prima Materia in the absolute roundness of the Lapis. J.-P. Chevalier, April 2008, Paris
Interview, March 2008
OP: How did you get started in art? RT was interviewed by Bettina Owczarek, Offenbacher Post, March 2008
Art & Freedom
James Joyce once wrote about his novels:
The exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by the artist Ruben
Talberg is This Hebraic term actually means “kingdom” but has by far more extensive connotations. Talberg chose this title to complement his yearning for immortality with his obsessions being the creator of an imaginary kingdom himself, a universe of creation emanating from his visionary powers. Is it Talberg’s metaphor par excellence when he exposes himself to this “act of liberation” which defines art, as he emphasized in many interviews? He will not answer this question but referring to his artworks speaking for themselves. It concerns all of us facing his art and finding hints in the unique language of his artworks. Ruben Talberg as a visual artist and visionary is permanently engaged in seeking his ways for liberation. His time travels through consciousness and dream lead the searching mind to the sources of age-old myths from the orient, the cradle of Judaism, his religion. He uses his personal freedom as an artist for his limit experiences between physical awareness, suffering and cognition. As a traveller between cultures and a discoverer who traces the structures beneath the surfaces with an almost archeological zest, he transforms strange matters as part of an ongoing metamorphosis into fabulous artworks. Driven by a huge curiosity and the ability to intelligently interpret information, Talberg recovers themes and hidden messages across most distinct cultures and times. Talberg’s artworks articulate religious texts, renditions of Kabbala, archaic deliverances, satanic ceremonies or narrations of exotic myths and marvels. Hebrew-Aramaic characters, ancient Egyptian symbols, sado-masochistic or fetish flamboyances, Voodoo signs, letter-figures shifts, tribal symbols, ethnic pictograms serve the artist as “breeding grounds”. Let me tell you about my rapprochment to the artist, my fascination for his oeuvre and for my, I admit, subjective evaluation of his pictorial semantics and motivation: In late summer 2006 I met Ruben Talberg for the first time: As a journalist I had to commentate about an upcoming art festival and suddenly was confronted with his artworks that blasted every local reference. I admit I was overwhelmed and really impressed by the powerful dynamics of his oeuvre.
Talberg’s former studio “Villa Obsession” provided a mise-en-scene of a
special nature: a tohoowabohoo of color-flushes, remarkable sculptures,
fragile mashups and large-formatted paintings. The abstract paintings,
monochrome and multi-layered, were flavored with enigmatic characters
and tiny drawings that evaded any superficial reading, a fortiori
emitting full-scale intensity and expressive energy. In his unchecked “peinture automatique” Talberg sketches, assembles, models all what seems figurative but in the process becomes disassembled, disintegrated, dissolved. Thus a topography of colors emerges superimposing one stratum over the other. An artwork by Talberg is like a snapshot of art itself, not a static predefined composition. The canvas becomes a permanent autonomous zone where freedom is still an option. Viewed in this light for Talberg art is “an act of liberation.” Formally and contentwise Talberg develops his works instinctively by boosts of growth, but also lets his visions ripen and expand like sediments, in a continual process until the grand finale. He consistently implemented this kind of procedure in his new Malchut cycle. Also in his new works we discover the impulsive modus operandi like a snapshot, not a conceptual premeditated production. An energy originates in complex areas of tension out of which a landscape without boundaries seems to spread. Creating an artwork thus becomes an act of conquest: The capture of a temporarily liberated zone on which the artist as the sovereign leaves his impressions. Talberg’s claim is first of all the no-compromise devotion to his oeuvre in order to push it to its potential limits – and to destruct those perceived ceilings whenever feasible. Insofar the artist is more than a border crosser, he is in fact a border destroyer on his new way. Art as an act of liberation, the artistic opus magnum in a way the last spot on earth where freedom is an essential part…Be it religious, mythological, scientifically or artistically: The “armed conflict” with matter creates attention. Talberg configurates and manipulates the matter level of his artworks to sort of channel our attention to a multi-faceted truth. In his obsession for degeneration and devastation he transforms asphalt, tar, relics of plants, blood, color pigments, sand etc. into substantial textures. The fascinating attraction of his artworks arises from a suspense between figuration and abstraction which conveys ever new areas of association. No matter if painting, sculpture or photography, Ruben Talberg tends to work simultaneously in serials of 6-12 works. In the process he changes his topic manifold, comparable to the piano variations by Chopin or the atonal creations by Schönberg. Talberg’s working style is spontaneously expressive. He works like a demon and thus becomes part of the accelerated cycles of global successes and excesses of our present-day culture. Late night is his regular working time during which he realizes his works without the typical “Hollywood-Happy-End.” His obsession is the expression of an anti-art, the postulate: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law!”, ultimately the act of liberation. Talberg’s achievement lies in the consistent development of an original visual syntax and his unique collage technique, a flexible human-readable mix of styles, taking possession of the past, reflecting the presence, cross-referencing well into the future. Ruben Talberg is rated as a serious participant in the contemporary art markets and is considered a significant representative of “Young Jewish Art”. As an artist, as a Jewish-German he relies on his talent, his compelling esthetic powers. Fortunately we feel his vitality stronger than ever. J. Schwarz, March 2008
Ruben Talberg: Solo-exhibit in the Jewish Community Center
|
| Opening reception: | 04 March 2008, 18.30 – 21.00 |
| Address: | Kaiserstr. 109, 63065 Offenbach |
| Duration of exhibit: | 04 March – 30 March, 2008 |
offenbach.de
Portal of Offenbach City
No more than 3 blocks distance from the Jewish Community
Center (JCC), R. Talberg recently moved into a dreamlike
property, Ludwigstr. 151, Offenbach. If you look at it you
immediately become affected by its southern-french charm,
while a giant cypress grows just in front of it as if it were the
studio’s landmark.
Simultaneously with the inauguration of the new art studio
(«Talberg Factory»), the «Talberg Gallery» will open up within
the context of a great reception. The new catalog «Malchut»
will also be presented.
With these two corresponding exhibits Talberg – deliberately
as a Jew - intends to initiate a new open dialogue with the city
of Offenbach and the overall Rhein-Main area. He hopes this
will be perceived as a counterpoint in times of public-spending
shortages and zero-sponsors.
Talberg takes a stand in art far beyond what is commonly
accepted and sold as Jewish Folklore Art. Talberg: «Jewish
Art is really much more than the ever present and uniform
painting of the Jidl with the fiddle in the ancient Polish shtetl».
| Opening reception: | 02 March 2008, 14.00 – 18.00 |
| Address: | Ludwigstr. 151, 63067 Offenbach |
| Duration of exhibit: | 02 March – 14 April 2008 |
offenbach.de
Portal of Offenbach City
90% of all paintings, sculptures, videos are trash – not in the sense of
“trash art”
but real trash. How can the viewer discern quality since unfortunately
it can’t be
measured in kHz, PSI, bar, lux or carat. Is it in contrast then a very
arbitrary
decision? Not quite.
For viewing artworks I would propose the following approach:
| (i) | The artwork stirs the e-factor in oneself, i.e. the art-emotion. There is a need for attention, absorbtion, amazement. |
| (ii) | The artwork develops its real attraction not until the real view. The original exhibits much more than any reproduction could. |
| (iii) | The pleasure to really perceive colors and forms, a suspenseful composition to involve the viewer in a story is no end in itself. |
| (iv) | It does not provide pure sentiments like naked fear or brutal violence. It allows for an unfamiliar mixture of emotions. |
| (v) | It sets up certain expectations without delivering the goods instantly. Only kitsch right away satisfies all needs that it awakes. |
| (vi) | It triggers in the viewer not only the need to feel but to understand. It wants to be comprehended and interpreted. |
| (vii) | It distinguishes itself by pursuing a clear mandate and taking every liberty to accomplish it. It deals with a theme and detects its own original variation. |
| (viii) | It orchestrates the theme with a productive cost–benefit ratio. It makes good on its promise with regards to size of gestures and material efforts. |
| (ix) | The artwork enriches one’s life by opening a few doors, stimulating a deepened aesthetic experience. |
| (x) | The artwork does not exhaust its possibilities on the first contact, on the contrary. It makes oneself curious for future re-encounters which continue to be thrilling. |
Talberg’s art advances within the realm of “Cognitive Art”. It invites
the viewer to
compare, to let him partake in the pleasures of reflection, to let him
sense the
unbelievable richness of art itself. To vitalize the significance of
colors and light
and thus boosting the ability to imagine. It is this ability to imagine,
to simulate
which disorganizes the conventional perceptions of truth and falsehood
thus
pointing in a direction beyond the present.
The need for such an art is hefty: for paintings and sculptures that
like to share
and can be shared by others. An art that doesn’t constantly need to
prove its
autonomy and which doesn’t have to take flight in a pathos of conquest
and
progress. Talberg sovereignly searches for his own themes and contents,
investigating the strategies of imagination accumulated over the
centuries in
various cultures and times.
If, after sifting through the evidence presented in this catalog “Malchut”,
the
viewer can answer most of the above questions with a yes, well then,
welcome to
the club.
H. Rauterberg, November 2007
Malchut
Malchut, literally meaning „kingship“, is the last of the ten sefirot,
and the final attribute within creation, within the Jewish Kabbalah
tradition. Malchut appears in the configuration of the sefirot at the
bottom of the middle axis, and in the soul is associated with the power
of self-expression. Kabbalah identifies three basic "garments" of the
soul which enable it to achieve expression: "thought", by which the soul
is revealed inwardly; "speech" and "deed", by which it is revealed
outwardly.
The soul, in its meditation, can only perceive and ascend to the higher
sefirot through the "pane" and portal of malchut. According to the “gematria”
malchut corresponds to the number 496, the sum of all numbers from 1 to
31, a "perfect number" which equals the sum of all of its divisors. Thus
the ten sefirot end and reach their consummation with a perfect number.
One of the deepest teachings of Kabbalah is also one of the simplest:
that the world is not what it seems. Refracted through the various
lenses of the sefirot, this "light" is the true structure of what is
happening right now.
Likewise in Talberg’s understanding the manifest world is in exile, in a
state of apparent separation; in need of unity. While the mind may know
that all is one, the “heart” still experiences two: Conscious &
subconscious, nature & alchemy, Eros & Thanathos, light & darkness…
And the heart keeps yearning constantly, which is part of our daily
reality like the experience of seperateness. In that respect the
Kabbalistic project, similar to the artworks of Talberg, tends to
restore the unity, starting by unifying the immanent and the
transcendent, heaven & earth, the masculine principle and the feminine
one.
E. Ben-Yakir, Mabat Art Gallery, November 2007, Tel-Aviv
Why brush with death made Ruben feel more vulnerable
JEWISH TELEGRAPH, March 23, 2007 by Estelle Lovatt
ISRAELI-German artist Ruben Talberg, born in Heidelberg in 1964, thinks of himself as an eco-friendly artist. While considering the current and much fashionable buzz of the global warming pitch, I guess he would say as much. Best known for his enormous abstract paintings executed in oil and tempera paint, Talberg – who also writes poetry – works as a sculptor making 3D objects in steel, and as a photographer, who works with video and installation.
Behind the far-reaching mind-set of Talberg’s own self-image as an artist lays a much more grave concern. He nearly got killed by a Hamas suicide-bomber, who intended to blow himself up in a coffee bar in Israel. Luckily the doorman was vigilant enough to check the would-be bomber out and he was eventually detained by the American Embassy services. This incident made Talberg feel both the vulnerability of life, and what sort of art he wanted to create in the future.
Since this brush with mortality, Talberg has felt a strong association with death. This is the down-to-earth, deep-seated meaning of his work which, changing into ever darker shades, tells of the impending disaster for Jews; warning of the intensifying danger of Iran threatening Israel with nuclear eradication.
By constantly reassessing whether grief is derived from a reaction or a thought, the pessimism that is Talberg’s is positive too, as he successfully confronts twins like heaven-hell and the conscious-subconscious. Crossing periods of history and lost space Talberg trips across different cultures and times. Through ideas of spiritualism bound in Jewish mysticism and magic Talberg runs symbols into characters of Hebrew letters and numbers with Buddhism, Voodoo and satanic rituals.
Melting them into a lost maze of pigment with a template of a Jewish gravestone, as in “Sew My White Burial Shrouds” (2007). Half the image is an abstract circuit; the other half shows an Ashkenazi vertical headstone. Dealing in halves, where the sorrow is halved and given half a chance of expression, then psychologically the distress becomes a little less, and pain is beat. Believing his artwork plays on a different level, Talberg works rapidly on different canvasses at the same time.
Often political, Talberg sees his art as a way of exercising power. Escaping the classic happy Hollywood ending, Talberg breathes the Old Testament’s Genesis of torched earth reduced to rubble, where fallen angels roam until Judgement Day when they will be banished to Hell as punishment for disobeying and rebelling against G’d.
Moreover, Talberg identifies himself as an influential Jew living in the Diaspora, indicative of the Jew from a combination of Jewish-Kitsch folklore, filling the gap with visual metaphors of testament and protest.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
▪ Ruben Talberg’s «Obsession» is at London’s Salon Gallery from 15 March - 23 July 2007 (4 months!).
Ruben, I wonder if I could start
by asking you about your influences and about how your art has arrived
at this particular point?
RT: It is as though I walk through a dreamland suddenly stopping at a
well, very deep, dark and mysterious. I let a bucket down to fetch some
of the most precious water. The water symbolizes the colors I use in the
paintings..."The waxlike night letting me repose ashenly in the midst of
cast-down deads. The powerful abyss not healing my trembling soul.
Delusive hope melting away like time into nothingness." (Quote from
"Night" © RT)
You live and work in Offenbach,
Tel-Aviv and Miami. How do you divide your time between these three
cities?
RT: Two thirds of the time I spend in Offenbach. The rest of the year I
am spending my time either in Israel the United States or wherever the
wind will carry me. Since I work constantly I tend to take the best or
worst of just any city as the well for inspirations.
What does the title of the
exhibition, "Eros and Thanathos" refer to?
RT: Let me answer this also with something I wrote: "Impoverished times,
caressed by winds of anxiety, overpowering and merciless the desert
raising his idol’s head, inflaming insanely ancient passions, impatient
all embracing jumbo lizards breeding a thousand times." ( Quote from
"Hell" © RT)
Why did you choose SaLon Gallery
for your first ever London show out of so many other eminent galleries
across West and Central London?
RT: I tend to prefer small successful places with a strong desire to
succeed such as your place. Established galleries do not show any
support for art that is not mainstreamly marketable and truly
avant-garde. Furthermore you are one of the very few galleries that are
politically active.
Politically active? Please
elaborate!
RT: As far as I know SaLon gallery is one of a few galleries world-wide
that engages itself in issues such as Global Warming or Eco-Terrorism.
The question remains how an artist transforms such issues into an
artistic language.
What was the title of your first
ever sold piece and who bought it? How much did you sell it for?
RT: Ohh, we shouldn’t tell the Internal Revenue Service more than they
already know.
You mentioned that a ‘Manifesto’
will soon appear on your website with a reference to a Global Warming?
Can you explain to us why and what the relationship between you as an
artist and the global warming theme might be?
RT: Well, I think art is actually an act of liberation. The total
commercialisation of the art market serves as a means of oppression.
What is inside the market is sold as mainstream art; what is outside the
market, is being ignored or rejected. In that way it is a very much
controlled market like any other market, ruled by the same "market
techniques": Techniques of suppression and immobilization. Members of
associations of chemical, automobile or nuclear operator oligopolies
(World Association of Nuclear Operators = WANO etc.) buy politicians and
dictate prices, legally or illegally destroy the environment which in
return results in global warming.
You rank among the most successful
Israeli-German contemporary artists. How do you feel about this
achievement?
RT: It means nothing to me. You have to fill that place with quality
work. You see all these rankings, shmankings with a new Top 10 list
etc..?? They lack in one essential thing which is quality, meaning or
truth which can’t be measured in €uros or Dollars.
Can you talk about the process
involved in creating your most recent paintings?
RT: The most recent paintings nobody has really seen yet except my
personal assistant-secretary. The one thing I can tell is that this time
I combined different media such as photography and painting. Very
unusual results and what a utopia of options!
Do you feel there’s something
specifically German and/or Israeli about your work?
RT: That’s a hard question. When I think of German I think of the
language and the landscapes, rather not the people. History repeats
itself. People of Nazi-Germany and Germany after 1945 were 99%
identical. 99% of the Nazis were friendly absorbed into the German
Justice, Police and Public Service. Today the Nazi-Pezzos di Merda sit
in the German Legislative Assemblies of Saxony and Brandenburg! It
shouldn't surprise that as a Jew I am f** sick and tired of those
Neo-Nazis...
Surely the German society has moved a long way, won’t you agree with
that?
RT: Many did, but I am rather pessimistic on the long perspective. What
I find rather strange is that people like Arno Breker get large-scale
exhibits sponsored by German public funds. You get the idea?
Your work is clearly influenced by
your interest for Jewish mysticism and magic. Please comment!
RT: That’s right. And it is not simple in my paintings: A labyrinth of
traces and super-positions, overheated planes of projections like the
ancient temple mountains of Israel, Peru or Mexico; fragments of stories
lost inside the paintings, archaic experiences, fractal geometries etc.
Which artists do you personally
feel inspired by or drawn to?
RT: Emil Schumacher who unfortunately passed away much too soon was
surely one of them. He commented on my work: "I recognize in Talberg’s
oeuvre a great elemental power as well as courage to take risks, whereby
in ever new productive impulses he creates true pictures."
Some complain that the current art
market has become too commercialized. As an artist, what’s your
perspective?
RT: According to the theory of "Imperial Overstretch" the art-world will
crumble down. There will be masses of art fairs selling things that look
like art but in reality are objects of decoration & design, a hell of
aesthetic irrelevance. In contrast my art plays in a different league. I
guess the famous curator Harald Szeemann would have surely taken pieces
of my art into his "museum of obsessions."
Having just come back from Art
Basel Miami where you promoted your new catalogue "Eros and Thanathos",
in your view, what makes Art Basel Miami completely different from the
world's other major art events?
RT: It is not that different. It has got the same management and the
very same sponsors as the mother Art Basel, i.e. Bank UBS. What makes it
an unique event are the US collectors and the hordes of US-museum
curators that run through the giga-show frantically searching for the
top prey.
Cézanne famously grappled with how
to represent the world through painting in his way... As a result he
spent a great deal of time outdoors, meditating on the landscape. And
you?
RT: I tend to meditate in the darkness..."Mystic entrancement under
lingering heat - like the arcane anguish of nocturnal insanity. Oh fine
image of goddess, ointment and dawn in maddening fetish and opaque
splendour." (Quote from "Obsession" © RT). And besides, not surprisingly
I reject perspective as opposed to Cezanne.
Cities today, especially in the
U.S. and Europe, are about car culture.
RT: Car and culture seems to be a contradiction in itself. I recently
shot a serial of a Ferrari F430, a car I personally would not even fit
in. It is a perfect piece of design, aesthetically appealing...
nonetheless it is part of the problem, not part of the ecological
solution. Or can you imagine a solar soundless Ferrari?
You declare yourself as a
committed supporter of a strong Jewish State. Is that correct?
RT: Correct. After so many traumatic experiences we as Jews deserve a
state of our own. The generous Israeli offer for peace and an
independent Palestinian State was rejected by Arafat in Camp David 2000.
Instead he chose the path of terror and bombs. I myself got almost
killed by a Hamas suicide bomber.
Was the bomber aimed at you or you
just happened to be in the place where the bomb was going to go off?
RT: No. He was supposed to blow himself up inside the caffee bar.
Fortunately the door-man was alert enough to check this guy out. So the
bomber decided to run away and seconds later was caught by the American
Embassy forces. It turned out that this pederast carried on his belt
more than 10kg of explosives charged with nails.
Did that experience have an effect
on you?
RT: It made me feel the fragility of life. It made me think of what art
I want to create in the future.
Your work is political...
RT: I tend to see art as my channel to exert influence. The canvasses
themselves become something like the permanent autonomous zones as
opposed to the temporary autonomous zones of ATTAC etc. Since art tends
to liberate, my works of art build the last resort where freedom is
still an option. Everything else is increasingly governed by subaltern
or superior officers, brutal paranoid bureaucrats or greedy psychopathic
functionaries.
Are the paintings physically and
mentally exhausting?
RT: After a night of work I feel physically destroyed but mentally in
other spheres. It is the obsession penetrating me like flogging shades.
Nothing so pearl-like tender as the hooked frenzy in blue.
Does that mean that you mainly
create night time?
RT: Yes. It is the best time to create as far as I am concerned.
Do you work on one painting at a
time?
RT: Not really. I tend to work simultaneously on 6-12 pieces. We are
talking variations in themes - comparable to serious music, like the
piano variations of Chopin, Mozart or the modern compositions of
Schönberg, Stockhausen. I recently shot a serial of about 50 Jewish
tombstones which I consider an important work.
What inspired you to shoot a
serious of tombstones and why do you consider that an important work?
RT: I feel I always got a strong connection to the world of death. It
got even stronger since I survived the suicide-bomber attack.
When did you start using
non-traditional materials, like Hay, Tar, Charcoal, Roses, Wood, Plants,
Blood, Earthy Colours?
RT: With those materials I am trying to break the barrier between the
object and the observer whereas this compression creates the energy and
warmth in my works. Magic symbols running hot, Aramaic characters
liquefying themselves. The abstraction and the concrete are
short-circuited in mystic hazes of tar, sand and earthy pigments. I
started using those materials a long time ago.
So you were eco-friendly a long
time before the current buzz on the global warming themes urging us all
to change?
RT: Yes.. in my view we will have to find a pragmatic solution to a
global problem. What will be interesting to see is how biological heat
is transformed into social heat, i.e. social sculpture.
How long does a painting take?
RT: 8 minutes... no seriously. The spatial nature of my works reminds of
the painstaking efforts of collecting and patching together those
damaged, buried, burned, destroyed object trouve or photos. That alone
may take years of research and development which in turn involves
enormous costs.
You’re not just watching paint
dry, like Larry Poons or something...
RT: Certainly not. Though I am working very fast and simultaneously on
different canvasses, the materials I use are massive, opaque, yet
breathing in translucent or fluorescent colour fields, suggesting
inherent tragedies in human history. The number of conflicts on earth is
steadily rising. Iran is threatening with the nuclear annihilation of
Israel etc.
What are you trying to regain in
your work?
RT: My works of art are records - documents of lost time and space,
hinting at decay, disaster and break-downs both natural and man-made,
Memento-Moris of civilization itself. That is why recently I became so
involved with Jewish tombstones.
What do you think younger artists
should take from the show?
RT: I would advise them to sell real estate instead of art. Art is a
very arcane business where you pay with your own blood and soul. From a
certain level onwards you have to be prepared to go all the way and live
the life of an outlaw. It is like in Dante’s Inferno where he crosses
the point of no return: "Ed elli a me, come persona accorta: Qui si
convien lasciare ogne sospetto; ogne vilta convien che sia morta."
That is not a very encouriging to
all those thinking of taking their art very seriously!
RT: Maybe art doesn’t take those artists very seriously that take
themselves too seriously.
How would you begin to introduce
these new pieces to someone who was coming to your work for the first
time?
RT: I would start off by drawing a direct line from Beuys to Kiefer to
Talberg. Though any of these three approached perception and reality
differently developing their own mythologies, one could decipher one
common denominator: Creating truly great art means first of all
destroying dated - customised - traditional stuff - the hell of
aesthetic irrelevance. Then you recognize great art by its power of
"visual vibes" vis-à-vis the observer, a serious relationship that grows
on a daily base, comes to maturity and is always unforgettable.
So finally, can I ask what you
think people will take away from your paintings?
RT: My art, if anything seems to evade the typical happy Hollywood
ending. My art tends to refer back to ancient obsessive rites, the
implications of which are somehow archaeological: Flame-torched earth,
emptiness, fallen angels, ruin, disaster and shock. And yet the
remaining autonomy on the canvass, art an act of liberation. Art as a
means of opposition, anti - position, liberation. First symbolic action:
Climb the watchtower and shoot the guard.
R. Talberg was interviewed by H. Dervovic, March 2007, London
Ruben Talberg’s new paintings, based on photographs taken in Spain and Israel, present highly worked surfaces suggesting inherent tragedies in human history. The materials on the technically brilliant tableaux are massive, hard, opaque, yet breathing in translucent color fields. His works of art are records - documents of lost time and space, hinting at decay, disaster and break downs both natural and man-made, a memento-mori of civilization itself.
Talberg does not paint a landscape. He builds one before our eyes. Some of them bearing characteristic calligraphic inscriptions partly in archaic languages drawn from his writings and lyrics. Like Emil Schuhmacher Talberg is not interested in the beauty of images but in their truth and how reality is represented. In that sense the titles of his works hint yet to another concealed plane of paradoxical meaning: “Fiends bathing in grass”, “Peacock feather befogged in candle’s smoke”, “Huntsmen racing over pasture of pandemonium”, “Ring of fortune under toad rain”.
Talberg’s pictorial space is simultaneously real and fictional. Traces of Israeli heat, bizarre icons, encrypted messages make a true statement about space which is right away questioned by chiaroscuro modeling which Talberg employs. In search of a story behind those fragments one gets lost inside the paintings, in which recollections, collective myths, archaic experiences are consolidating to ever new images like in a kaleidoscope.
Talberg’s painting-lyrics break the barrier between object and observer, picture and pictured whereas this compression creates the energy in his works. Magic symbols running hot, aramaic characters liquifying themselves. The abstraction and the concrete are short-circuited in mystic hazes of tar, sand and pigments reminiscent of Joseph Beuys. However Talberg - more focusing on the uncertain fuzzy nature of things - moves at once in two different directions: Conscious & subconscious, nature & alchemy, levity & gravity, light & darkness, this & next world, heaven & hell, asymmetry & dynamics, Eros & Thanathos.
It is not simple in Talberg’s paintings: The gray - black, terrra-cotta earthlike modeling suggesting depth, indicating recession beneath the plane, rejecting perspective as Cezanne did. Soughing bacchanalia in ocher, orange and blue, encoded columns of numbers, ciphers of Voodoo, names of Israeli soldiers killed in action: A labyrinth of traces and superpositions, overheated planes of projections trapping communications before they disappear.
Talberg’s art seems to evade the typical happy Hollywood ending. Instead he is referring us back to ancient obsessive rites of post-apocalyptical times, presenting us deep strata of superimposed meanings, the implications of which are somehow archeological: Flame-scorched earth, emptiness, fallen angels, ruin, disaster and shock. His main focus seems to be deeply rooted in his artistic personality: building, reconfiguring, reconstructing coherent images of reality from fragments and left-overs of history. The spacial nature of his works of art reminds us of the painstaking efforts of collecting and patching together those damaged, buried, burned, destroyed objet trouve or photos.
The celebrated painter Emil Schumacher commented: "I recognize in Talberg’s oeuvre a great elemental power as well as courage to take risks, whereby in ever new productive impulses he creates true pictures."
We are deeply grateful to Ruben Talberg himself, without whose active aid, consideration and trust this project would never have been possible. We also wish to express our appreciation to all those who launched with verve into the project, especially Maria, Barbara and Gitta who provided mediation and support throughout the project.
It is an honor to present this new catalogue and to have Talberg represented in America.
A. Schwarzmann, April 2007, New York
Jewish Life in Germany, Austria and France
Art: Saving the memory of Israeli soldiers
killed in action
Frankfurt. In the confines of B’nai B’rith Lodge, Frankfurt the Jewish
artist Ruben Talberg exhibited his new works under the title
"Zeitgeist". The surfaces of his oeuvre consist of various materials,
among other cement, tar, shellac. To cut a long story short: These works
of art are spectacular reminding us of Israeli soldiers killed in the
last Lebanon war. The energetic paintings are dominated by terrestrial
colors and structures that invoke in the observer remembrances of
decomposition, Thanathos and a strong connection to earth. Under
different layers we can decipher single names written in ancient Aramaic
letters - thereby definitely saving them from oblivion and anonymity.
"I search for the true picture, not the pretty
one", commented Ruben Talberg who thus contributes an important
part to the Jewish cultural scene in Frankfurt and far beyond.
A. Canem, March 2006
IK: What is your
birthplace/nationality?
RT: Birthplace Heidelberg, Germany, Nationality: Israeli-German.
IK: What are your most profound
memories of growing up?
R.T.: Reading Nietzsche, listening to Mahler, Schönberg, Scriabin...
IK: How has your origin influenced
your artwork?
R.T.: Searching for my jewish identity - crossing over cultural
boundaries, destroying familiar frames of mind - combining ancient rites
& symbols with modern iconography. So presently I’m working in
Offenbach, Tel-Aviv, Miami.
IK: At what point in life did you
begin to take an interest in art?
RT: At 16 I visited my relatives in America for the first time. Some of
these guys are artists until today living in California, New York,
Connecticut. One of them taught me how to deal with oil & acryl on
canvas.
IK: What are the biggest
influences on your work?
RT: Emil Schumacher, Antonie Tapie, Anselm Kiefer...
IK: Have there been dramatic
events in your life that have changed/shaped your art?
RT: Since I almost got killed by a Hamas suicide bomber in Israel I tend
to take life even more seriously. Also in my lyrics I tend to convey
that darker side of my artistic endeavours which in turn become part of
those “lyrical paintings”.
IK: What was the hardest point in
your artistic journey?
RT: Being driven out of an art studio by another fellow artist who
needed the "extra" space. As this door closed a new one opened up in
Offenbach, a former church which I turned into an art studio.
IK: What was the most gratifying
experience for you as an artist?
RT: Being able to constantly find new ways of expressing myself. My
major interest is in figuring out structure, build, configuration - the
spatiality of things. Art: an act of liberation.
IK: Describe your frame of mind
when creating? What is the atmosphere like?
RT: Looking at marble I’m thinking of cutting it, creating a sculpture.
Looking at wood I’m thinking of chain-sawing it, creating an object.
Looking at canvas I’m thinking of melting colors, shaping them into
informal forms, engaging in an endless struggle to adopt the proper
means that promise success.
IK: What is the personal
significance of having your art shown in New York?
RT: Well... one of the centers of contemporary art. Therefore I also
became member of the New York Artists Equity Association, Inc.
IK: What are your artistic and
life goals? What would you like your art to accomplish?
RT: My artistic and life goals are identical... (laughing)... Becoming
number one on the Capital 100 Art Index...
IK: Is your art geared to a
specific audience?
RT: Yeah..(laughing)...the Art Jet-set people flying around places like
Whitney-Biennale, Armory Show, Art Basel, Berlin Art Forum, Art Cologne,
Fiac, Sao Paulo, Art Cologne, Documenta, Frieze Art, Miami Beach.
IK: What kind of organizations do
you feel would take a particular interest in coming to see your
exhibition?
RT: Art Museums, B’nai B’rith, Mensa International, New York Times, Art
Power 100 People, Simon Wiesenthal Centers, Masonry, Skulls, Forbes..
IK: What do you believe makes your
art stand out in the art world?
RT: You have heard of the theory "imperial overstretch"? The art-world
will crumble down. There will be masses of art fairs selling things that
look like art but in reality are objects of decoration & design, a hell
of aesthetic irrelevance. In contrast my art plays in a different
league. I guess the famous curator Harald Szeemann would have surley
taken pieces of my art into his "museum of obsessions".
I. Khaytman, September 2006, New York
Ruben Talberg employs rich earth tones and fiery
spectrums, which lend his paintings a naturalistic and timeless feel.
Reminiscent of Willem de Kooning’s abstract work, Talberg’s abstract
expressionism employs richly colored oil and tempera as well as
occasional punctuating devices such as words, phrases, and, most
recently, bold charcoal splatters.
Talberg works in a variety of media that include sculpture and poetry.
The phrases he incorporates into his compositions are provocative and
mimicked by the colors and shapes in the painting, as when the word
“wine” forms a light burgundy smear not unlike a wine stain in the
painting "Wine Witch at Blocksberg".
An ardent opponent of Anti-Semitism whose spiritual interests include
Buddhism and Voodoo, Mr. Talberg does not shy away from challenging
binaries such as heaven-hell, light-dark, and conscious-subconscious.
Yet, despite the portions of Talberg’s paintings that remain unsettled
or jarred, each of his works retains balance and coherence overall.
Talberg's paintings have been exhibited in Israel and throughout Europe.
L. Caravella, August 2006, New York
JW: An Israeli from Heidelberg, named
Ruben Talberg who works in Frankfurt, Tel-Aviv, Miami, whose works of
art keep challenging the art-world? How did this exciting set-up emerge?
RT: Such things don’t happen overnight. These are developments that
partly happen very fast, partly require years like overlaying sediments.
Art requires a long breath, constant growth, the grand vision. All these
things are not very popular in our short-winded, superficial time
stamped by hedomats (hedonistic materialists).
JW: What does a work of art have to
convey?
RT: It’s got to be anarchic, abstract, cynical, cool, mad, merciless -
displaying all the qualities Big Business has long since acquired and
thus became art itself. I feel inspired by capitalism hammering its
values into the art-world.
JW: You like to distance yourself from
the so called "global fashion art"?
RT: Yes. It involves a relatively small number of power people (100-200)
who keep hyping certain names ("blue chips") worldwide, thus dictating
prices. As long as new money is constantly flowing into the market and
the collectors are playing along the "art-bubble" continues to expand.
JW: What does an artist have to bring
along to survive in the market?
RT: First of all commitment to his works, then the last consequence to
push his works to the possible limits. Insofar he is a border crosser.
Next the artist should feel like an entrepreneur at eye level with the
other participants in the art market.
JW: Did you study at an art-academy?
Where do you originate from in art?
RT: In art I consider myself self-made. Art academies just never
attracted my interest. So instead I studied business and graduated an
MBA. What ultimately counts for me though are the results manifested in
the concrete works of art and the statement behind it. Everything else
is increasingly boring me to death.
JW: What is new in your basic approach?
RT: My approach consists of incorporating my own mythologies, i.e.
Jewish tradition, mysticism, Kabbalah and combining - merging those with
other ancient - contemporary legends such as Voodoo Cult, Egyptian
hieroglyphs, current Chinese economic numbers etc. That is working
partly via material - color, partly via symbolism or text - titles.
JW: What is your aspiration in art? Where
do like to go?
RT: Freedom. For me art is an act of liberation, my works of art
actually the last resort where freedom is still an option. Creating
great art means first of all destroying dated - customized - traditional
stuff. You recognize great art by its power of "visual vibes" that grows
on a daily base, comes to maturity and is always unforgettable.
JW: You work in serials, whether in
painting, sculpture or photography?
RT: That’ right. I tend to work simultaneously on 6-12 pieces. We are
talking variations in themes - comparable to serious music, like the
piano variations of Chopin, Mozart or the modern compositions of
Schönberg, Stockhausen. I was recently in New York and shot over 400
photos which is a big serial.
JW: What do you say about the art-scene
on the ART Basel 2006?
RT: I was surprised by the quality of certain pieces. When I think back
of the Art Frankfurt 2-3 years ago, that was appaling: It was dominated
by "painting from numbers", flat, realistic Chinese copykills. Insofar
it was now ok in that respect.
JW: Which projects are you following up
right now?
RT: First of all the production of an up-to-date catalogue displaying my
new works. Second an exhibition in Cannes, France in 2007 and a new
museum presentation. Third I continue to work in steel and wood creating
new sculptures, so that is a priority also.
JW: You recently created a new serial of
Heidelberg shots?
RT: Yes. Since I was born in Heidelberg and somehow rooted there.
Heidelberg always used to be a well of inspiration to me. Don’t forget
Heidelberg is rated as the cradle of Romanticism with folks like
Hölderlin, Brentano, Jean Paul. After that Ernst Lubitsch, 1924 the
Broadway musical: “The Student Prince”. As the poem goes : “ I lost my
heart in Heidelberg’s fair city, t’ was in a gentle summer night…”. It
seems delightful to me contrasting such a place with New York.
JW: Right. In New York you will have
another exhibition?
RT: True. I consider New York as one of the art centers, among other
places like... (laughing)... Kassel, Venezia, Paris, Basel, Miami,
London, Sao Paulo, Istanbul, Berlin, Moskva, Dohar.. Did I forget a
city? Anyway.. did you know that my family is somehow related to the
famous Irving Thalberg, the founder of the Hollywood Memorial Award..
just talk to the Oscar Academy, Los Angeles.. Anyway my flight is
leaving..(laughing)... I got to meet people from the World Economic
Forum at Davos. They recently elected an artist as Manager of the
Year...
J. Weinberg, June 2006, San Francisco.
1. Where would you prefer to live? In the South
near the sea.
2. When are you most happy? After creating a true
artwork.
3. Which mistakes you pardon most likely? Stupidity.
4. What makes you laugh the most? Black humor.
5. Your favourite person in history? T. Herzl.
6. Your female heroes in reality? Women that
understand me.
7. Your favourite female character in literature?
Justine.
8. Who or what would you prefer to be? Who I am.
9. What do you valuate most with your friends?
Success.
10. Your favorite lyricist? Baudelaire.
11. Yur heroes in reality? Mossad.
12. Your female heroes in history? Golda Meir.
13. Your favorite names? Dalia, Sharon.
14. What is your favourite color? Black.
15. Your favorite interpreter – composer? Scriabin.
16. What is your favourite film? Un chien andalou.
17. Your favorite actress? Emanuelle Beart.
18. Your favorite actor? De Niro.
19. Which is your favourite novel character? Faust.
20. Your favourite writer? E. Canetti.
21. Your favourite painter? A. Tapies.
22. Your favourite flower? Les fleurs du mal.
23. Your favourite animal? Black hawk.
24. Which traits you cherish most with men? Humor.
25. Which traits you cherish most with women? Sex
appeal.
26. Which historic do you despise most? A. H.
27. Which military achievements do you admire most?
D-Day.
28. Which reform do you admire most? Was there any?
29. What do you detest the most? Violence, drugs.
30. What is for you the greatest disaster? Ecce
homo.
31. Your favorite pursuit? Art.
32. Your biggest virtue? Tolerance.
33. Your biggest vice? Impatience.
34. Which natural gift would you like to possess?
To fly.
35. How would you like to die? When creating an
artwork.
36. Your present state of mind? Lucid interval.
37. Your motto? Art: An act of liberation.