Artist-to-Watch: Reinhard Blank

The world changes constantly; we are unable to control what will be. We only know access to the arts is intrinsic to a high quality of life at any moment.

Spring is the time to reconstitute the Urban Tribes series artists with clean contours and no limits. I hope your interest is piqued and you do not begrudge praise, admiration and appreciation.

Basic Form, 2004,

Pigment and Japanese ink

on canvas, 79 x 79 inches

Reinhard Blank

Sky Mirror, 2007, Steel, granite, water, 138 x 81 x 18 inches. Private collection

The Substance of Balance in Implicit Strength

Luchia Meihua Lee

One chilly morning in the pandemic spring of 2021, we got the chance to start considering the supposed 'dark ages' and subsequent rebirth of science in the beginning of Renaissance. If we posit decline of culture and knowledge in the Middle Ages, we can credit the Protestant Reformation for their revival. Thus numerous figures - including Edmond Gibbon and William Camden - attributed to the early Middle Ages "dark clouds or rather thick fogges of ignorance." [1] However, historians have developed a new appreciation for the brilliance of Early Middle Ages culture and learning, and consequently dismiss the notion of a "darkness". The curbing of our social lives in order to diminish the force of the pandemic's dark year has allowed not only reappraisals of the Middle Ages, but also a focus on self-renewal and spiritual approach.

Spiritual Garden - sculpture garden of four elements, each cabin 118 x 118 inches, built in 2014. Chosen in 2018 as model and architectural inspiration in the Allgäu region by Architektforum e. V. after a review by an international panel of professional architects. These four structures quietly release artistic essence into the lush woods by the riverside.

In the Middle Ages, belief in God coincided with enthusiasm for all human knowledge. And for the Bavarian artist Reinhard Blank, interestingly, loyal faith does not ever mean the rejection of new ideas. The channeling of creative energies into religious art and architecture requires discipline and economy of expression, and thus is an eminently suitable outlet for Blank's art. There a harmony between science and religion - "to imagine [them] as two separate, inevitably antagonistic opponents, ... is far too simplistic." [2]

Blank, a son-in-law of Taiwan, has been inspired both by Asian and Germany philosophy. For example, he located his Spiritual Garden on a hill behind his studio. This piece is a set of four walk-in wooden sculptures connected by a metal walkway, and there we find that he has combined natural strength and spiritual softness; Spiritual Garden is rational, minimal and conceptual. The small cabins can function as personal studios of meditation, as cozy tea houses, or merely as a set of sculptures. Blank spent time studying with a Japanese tea master to learn a sophisticated tea ceremony, and drinking tea has become part of his daily living style. In his minimalism, instead of splashing his emotions about, the artist is revealed by his recurrent use of materials that can be returned to nature: earth pigment on unprimed canvas, water, and steel. This is not surprising in the son of a farmer with academic art training. Blank always wears a humble smile, whether because or despite his pursuit of complex philosophical ideas.

Entrance to Church of Saint Martin in Memmingen, Germany, 2017. Glass and steel, 134 x 102 inches, photo credit Andreas Marx

Twelve Apostles; Steel, copper, and glass, invited design of the main door of church Kinderlehrkirche,

2011 built in Memmingen, Germany

Blank's art, as is most apparent in his church features design, turns out to be an expression of mathematical statement. It is as remarkably tuned and transformed as the work of scholars and monks of the middle ages who discovered the mathematical nature of the universe which they proclaimed as yet another testament to the glory of God. Blank is highly trained in the ideas of the Bauhaus School in Design and Art in Germany, in industrial design, simple abstract design; as a machinist; and as a researcher and devotee of philosophy. At the same time, he needs to immerse himself in natural environments such as his beloved Allgäu region of Bavaria. So in lieu of standing solely in a spiritual context, Blank bases his work on his technical arts training, his internationally recognized professional qualifications. and his use of universal and fundamental methods in a purpose-designed space. Blank's works investigate natural mystical and futuristic imagination, thus encompassing the lines and structure of intriguing expectation.

From Blank's statement, we learn his work not only aspires to a type of "reductive art" or minimal aesthetic but also an exposure of means. 'You see not only "what you see" ... but how [it] got there, in the normally regular but nuanced work not (melo)dramatically but subtly expressive, wake of the brush.' [3] Blank expresses purity in his works and has a precise grasp of the subtleties of three-dimensional shape. This is apparent in his flat paintings. Minimalists choose to let the art object present its own characteristics.

The essential composition shows the geometry of Blank's work and is more like Bauhaus's ingenious design and follows his literacy of the void, where solidity and emptiness are interlaced and complementary. In his sculpture, Blank uses steel and water to represent contrasting states constrained in time and space with mathematical rigor. "Natural philosophy" refers to the drive to draw moral and spiritual wisdom from God's creation. This natural philosophy embraces the over-arching languages of mathematics and theology and bends human invention to decipher appearance and the invisible. It has no restriction and harmonizes thought of such diverse thinkers as Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Erasmus, Isidore of Seville, and later Isaac Newton.

One of his landscape sculptures, Sky Mirror, was commissioned for a garden and combines small ponds, water and steel into sculpture. Thus natural landscapes are contained in and complemented by soothing minimalism. The structure, is in perfect harmony with the garden, dialoguing with its numerous rare flowers and plants. Another imaginative use of reflection may be found in one of his church door designs where glass in a small cross reflects the grassy area in front of the church. Elegant and carefully calculated composition in steel and flowing water can be found in many of his sculpture pieces. The variation in the flow of water, and consequently in the configuration of the water surface, induces a corresponding change in the reflection of the sky and the ambient light, which is particularly mesmerizing. The work catches and re-radiates the changing mood in the nature environment and the passage of the seasons, and even in its stillness is dynamic.

Direct Presence - Minimalsystem

der Selbstreferenz IV; 2006, Steel, glass, 98.4 (L) x 88.6 (W) x 39.4 inches.

Reflection of trees above and Sun glittering on the surface of the glass.

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Interaction - Minimalsystem der Selbstreferenz III; 2004, Steel, 64 x 64 x 45.7 inches. The crumbling surface of the metal can be seen via time lapse photography.

In Blank's paintings, sculpture and outdoor design, we find the perpetual intrusion and extrusion of shapes, frequently by means of an inward missing part balanced by an outward addition. This produces an atmosphere of harmony and calm, while exhibiting a clean form that is structured and balanced with regard to cultural and social catalysts. In Taoist terms, the opposing forces of Yin and Yang juxtapose negative and positive in a rhythmic and musical inspiration. We find consistently demonstrated two versions of a familiar or understandable formula accompanied by an idea that embodies both medieval mystical existence and modern minimal self-sufficiency. While possibly not acknowledged by those viewers preoccupied with ornamental culture, Blank's work is in a way unparalleled in scale intellectually, ideologically, or even politically. It leads to a sense of hidden forces bringing to life another art ideology.

W. J. T. Mitchell [5] delves into the relation between word and image. While the former is the traditional domain of art history, if “art history aims to become a critical discipline, one that reflects on its own premises and practices,” then it must draw inspiration from and utilize the tools of semiotics, structural linguistics, grammatology, discourse analysis, rhetoric – and yes, even philosophy. Blank’s unique blend of minimalism, design, mathematics, and philosophies both Eastern and Western, is an example par excellence of art that demands to be analyzed in Mitchell’s terms – to be appreciated on a purely visual level, but then more fully contextualized.

References:

[1] Seb Falk, The Light Age: the Surprising Story of Medieval Science, WW. Norton & Company, 2020, p.4.

[2] ibid., p 5.

[3] Edward Strickland, 'Paint", Minimalism: Origins, Indiana University Press, 1993. p. 110.

[4] Gregory Battcock, Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology, University of California Press, 1995. p.181-185, p. 260-262

[5]Critical Terms in Art History, Nelson and Shiff, eds. University of Chicago Press, 1996, P 48.

David Elliot, Making Sense of Things, ed. Carin Kuoni, Words of Wisdom, Independent Curators International (ICI), NY. 2001.

Shadow of the Mind; 2007, Steel, Japanese paper, glass, 20.5 x 16.5 x 5 inches/each

Artist Statement

What I am looking for is the simplest forms to comprehend the world. I dedicated most of my time and energy to philosophy. Inspired by artist Piet Mondrian, art historian Hans Joachim Albrecht, and influenced by ‘Structures and Dynamics of Theories’ of Wolfgang Stegmüller, I transformed my artwork toward rational and conceptual expression by means of geometric structures. Lacking ornamentation, radically simplified geometric forms are grounded in Earth symbolism and demonstrate my concerns with the world, the body, the mind, and the spirit. I use a rational structure design result correlating width, length, area, volume, proportion, space, the mass, weight, and Fibonacci sequence to promote an aesthetic view and effect, and also respond to visual interpretation with implicit and metaphorical statements in a systematic style. My artwork is a product of a specific focus on the world that we live in and serves as a mirror for ourselves. At the beginning, we are embedded in a predetermined but unforeseeable background; however, continued and inevitable interactions reformat and re-shape us. In my artwork, I try to develop a harmonious, meditative character that promotes contemplation of both the rationality of the human intellect and its limitations. This reveals my innermost concern with consciousness – a seemingly comprehensible, mechanical structure, modified by a transcendence beyond the limits of rationality and hence unknowable.

"Śūnyatā" Fountain; an invited design for the garden of a yoga practitioner, 2010, Cement, 39.4 x 47.2 (diameter) inches.

Śūnyatā (Sanskrit) is a Buddhist concept often construed as emptiness and sometimes voidness.

Coordinates; 2017, Pigment on canvas, multiplex; 90 x 18.9 inches. Life movement staggers between space and time

Dialectic of Merger; 2018, Pigment on Oak, 14 x 20.5 inches. There is nothing with an independent reality

Reinhard Blank , Born in Memmingen, Germany.

MFA (master class diploma), The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich , Germany

Selected Awards / Honors

Arts Prize of City Memmingen (Kulturpreis der Stadt Memmingen), Germany.

Special Artist Prize (‘Künstlersonderpreis’), Künstlerhaus, Marktoberdorf, Germany.

Artwork - Raum Skulpturen ‘Garten der vier Eletmente‘ selected in publication, as one of the model and architectural inspiration in the Allgau region during 2013-2018 by Architektforum e.V. , a selection once in five years, reviewed by an international panel of professional architects.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Visual Structure Theory -Tractatus of Ludwig Wittgensteins, associated with a lecture ‘how to reconstruct Wolfgang Stegmüller’s Interpretation of Tractatus, a theoretical model of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s in a visual form’, University Ulm, Germany.

‘Aesthetics of Void’, Kreuzherrnsaal, Memmingen, Germany.

‘Poesie der Unterscheidung’, Schloss Hohlenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.

Selected Group Exhibitions

"experiment konkret - Eugen Komringer zum 80.", Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Germany.

“Sammlerkonzepte“, Kunstspeicher Museum, Würzburg, Germany.

Anniversary Exhibition, Künstlerhaus, Marktoberdorf, Germany.

Selected Public Art/Design

‘Interpretation from Trinity with “Minimalsystemen der Selbstreferenz”’ Ceiling Design –(size 99 m²)., Trinity Church (Dreifaltigkeitskirche), Ravensburg, Germany.

Corridor and Worship Room Design for Arche Slowenien, Medvode Slowenien.

Invited design of the entrance and souvenir area of St. Martin's church, Memmingen, Germany.

Selected Collections

Municipal cultural department, Memmingen, Germany.

Municipal cultural department, Kempten, Germany.

DG-Bank, Hohenkammer, Germany.

Selected Publications

Minimalsystem der Selbstreferenz. Malerei im interkulturellen Dialog, Gallery Akzente 2001, Memmingen, Germany.

essay – Teezeremonie und Spiritueller Raum - Überlegungen zu Wahrnehmungsformen von Transzendenz, published in Journal ‚Spiritual Care‘ volume 8(1) 2019, p. 67-75, DE GRUYTER, Germany.

essay – Ent-täuschung – Spiritualität in book “ Spirituelle Erfahrung in philosophischer Perspektive”, p. 161-167, Walter de Gruyter Berlin, Germany.

Teaching

1991 - 1998 Principal of School 'Schule für Gestaltung', Teaching ‘philosophy of fine art,’ Ravensburg, Germany.

Five forms of self-reflection; 2019, Obsidian pigment on Japanese Paper, each 37.8 x98.4 inches.

More information:

Reinhard Blank

Thalatelier Reinhard Blank, Unterthal 33a, 88730 Bad Grönenbach -Thal Germany

email: info@reinhard-blank.de

Other Internet Profiles:

Reinhard Blank 的後花園小屋雕塑- 揭秘這一位德國巴伐利亞的小鎮藝術家

https://ll-greenyes.blogspot.com/2019/01/reinhards-spiritual-garden-bad.html

Art as Implicit Substance 存在中的真實

https://ll-greenyes.blogspot.com/2019/08/reinhard-blank-art-as-implicit-substance.html

Reinhard Blank: Venice 2019 exhibition preview video link:

https://youtu.be/CumOffw0M28

Stadtmuseum Memmingen ( Click here to view Reinhard Blank “AusZeit - Art as Clarification at The Memmingen City Museum)

https://zeitmaschine-stadtmuseum-mm.de/de/ausstellungen/sonderausstellungen

Click here to view flyer of the exhibit at Stadtmuseum Memmingen 梅明根市立博物館

德國巴伐利亞地區梅明根市-田園詩般的工業小城 Memmingen, Germany

https://ll-greenyes.blogspot.com/2013/09/memmingen-germany.html

image above:

Variations of the Form interaction;

2001, Pigment on canvas,

38.6 x 86.6 inches.

Contact: info@taac-us.org if you are interesting to support this artist in any creative way.

TAAC -- Building bridges between communities, nationally and internationally through art and culture to deepen our senses of beauty, inspiration, and empathy.

Felipe Galindo, Subway series II; 2015, 11 x 14 inches, ink & watercolor on subway map & magazine wrap. Image courtesy of the artist

Eric C. Chiang, The Year 2020, No.2; oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, Image courtesy of the artist

Herberto Turizzo Anaya, Second Ave Subway mural; 1998, Bernardo Palombo, Donna Light, Turizzo Anaya for the MTA, 192 x 120 inches. Image courtesy of the artist

Exhibition: Urban Reverence, New York

The phenomenon of migrants forming an international cross-cultural "urban tribe" is one of the urgent topics in the 21st century. Analyzed historically in the context of the planet and symbiosis, this involves the survival of human beings and maintenance of balance among various living things. The discourse thus moves to valuing human nature, preservation of multiple cultures, the environment, and the new multi-faceted unity. Potential political, economic, and cultural crises can only be averted by an emphasis on the diversity of life that promotes interactive relationships.

Curatorial team:

Chief Curator: Luchia Meihua Lee, Executive Director, TAAC

Co-curators: Jennifer Pliego, Director of Special Programs and Head of the House of Art, El Taller Latino Americano, NYC

Sarah Walko, Curator, Director of Education & Community Engagement, Visual Art Center of New Jersey

Participating artists

Herberto Turizzo Anaya, Reinhard Blank, Dennis Redmoon Darkeem, Catherine Lan, Wei Lee, Yen-Hua Lee, Stephanie Cheung/Chengwen Lin, Shih Pao Lin, Eleng Luluan, Sarah Haviland, Diana Heise, Hiroshi Jashiki, Alexander Khimushin, Rosalía Mowgli, Walis LaBai (Dingwu Wu), Sarah Walko, j. maya luz, Chin Chih Yang, Yeh Fang. Eric Chiang.

Miya Ando, Steven Balogh , Ching-Yao Chen, Yutien Chang, Jen-Pei Cheng, Chemin Hsiao, Andrea Coronil, Felipe Galindo, Mingjer Kuo, Pey-Chwen Lin, Yi-Chun Lo, Kelly Tsai & Ryan Hartley Smith, Yu-Chuan Tseng, Lulu Meng, Pei Shih Tu.

LIGHT YEAR 51-We the People & LIGHT YEAR 53-From People to the Land