KLAUS ZYLLA
«A ÚLTIMA VIAGEM»
20 Jun - 19 Jul 2008
Opening Night: Friday 20th of June at 22.00h
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 11.00h > 20.00h
Saturdays 15.00h > 20.00h
The António Prates Gallery will inaugurate, on Friday June 20th, at 10pm, a show of paintings by the German artist, Klaus Zylla, born in 1953 and who has exhibited his art work since 1986. It is with great pleasure that we receive this renowned artist, who will be present at the opening. The exhibition will have a collection of about 30 works, from paintings to drawings, and the show pays homage to an historic figure of great importance in the town where Zylla was born, Cottbus, Germany.
The show, entitled, "A Última Viagem", is the final voyage for the deceased Prince Pückler, a German Prince from the former Lusatia region (that today is a part of the federal state of Brandenburg, Germany), of 150 years ago, who never visited Portugal in his lifetime. Pückler became famous for his excellent and important work in landscape architecture, but also for his books on his travels to locations all over the world where he came into contact with several relevant names of his time, written in a light but very lucid tone, which are still well-known today. There are several works by Prince Pückler that attest to his influence and creativity in the area; among them are several parks and even buildings, but his masterpiece is Branitz park, in Cottbus, one of the most beautiful parks in all of Germany, where Pückler built two pyramids even, an influence from his trips to the Orient, one of them placed at the center of a lake, that is also the final resting place for the Prince and his wife.
The exhibition takes the Prince's travels and his life as its theme, in the style characteristic of Zylla, with calligraphic and expressionistic undertones; for this show the artist will paint a pyramid-shaped construction, in allusion to the 2 pyramids the Prince built in Branitz Park, which will be placed at the center of the show. To Zylla, Pückler's pyramids represent a reference from his troubled youth, an element that was to him a source of inspiration and dreams.
Klaus Zylla was born in Cottbus in 1953, in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic). After experiencing several difficulties during his formative years due to the political climate of the time in Eastern Germany, after sometime Zylla was able to partially free himself of the dictatorship imposed by the political regime and was able to secure a job in the arts, in the mid-70's. Between 1980 and 1982, he studied at the Berlin Art School. In 1986 he opened his own serigraphy workshop, becoming well-known for the high quality and skill evident in his work. From then onwards he started showing his work. In 1993, he received the Art Award of the Grundkredit Bank of Berlin. Currrently he lives in Berlin and Reguengo Pequeno, Portugal.
The paintings of Klaus Zylla have a strong calligraphic component - be it through the inclusion of text and words or through the calligraphic way of painting and drawing he employs.- and they are inhabited by hybrid and imaginary figures, often times in a combination between animal forms, human forms, or both. His work has influences from expressionism and neo-expressionism, through figures that were of interest to him at several moments of his career, such as Alfred Kubin, A.R. Penck, Paul Holz or even COBRA group.
Klaus Zylla first shows solo in 1986, in Berlin, and since that time he has shown on a regular basis, in several Galleries in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden and Portugal. He has also participated in numerous group shows, such as: The Michigan Gallery, Detroit, USA; Artcite Gallery, Windsor, UK; Göethe Institute, Chicago, EUA; Göethe House, NY, USA; The Art Institute, Boston, EUA; Berlinische Galerie no Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Olinda, Brazil; The Great Art Exhibition, Düsseldorf, Germany; Conrad-Adenauer Foundation, Bonn, Germany; Biesdorf Castle, Berlin, Germany; Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco, USA; California Palace of the Legion of Honour, San Francisco, USA; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany.
His work is represented in some of the most important collections in the world, among them: Waldorf-Foundation Berlin; Germanisches National Museum Nuremberg, Germany; Kunsthaus Basel, Basel, Germany; Paris National Library; New York Public Library, NY, EUA; Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachussets, USA; Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachussets, USA; Marvin-L.-Suttner-Foundation of Visual Poetry Miami, Florida, USA; MoMA, New York, USA; Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, California, USA.
For this show, the Gallery will publish a bilingual catalogue, with illustrations of the exhibited works, and a preface by the portuguese art critic, Maria João Fernandes.
The show will be on public display until the 19th of July and entry is free of charge.
KLAUS ZYLLA «A ÚLTIMA VIAGEM» Press Release as pdf-File 527 KB
Galeria António Prates
Rua Alexandre Herculano, 39A
1250-009 Lisboa
Phone, Fax and Email: 21 357 1167; 21 357 1168; geral@galeriaantonioprates.com
Gallery Location:
located between the Marquês de Pombal and Largo do Rato,
near Rua Castilho and next to the Cimpor Building.
Parking is available 50 metres away.
Access by Public Transport: Subway - Marquês and Rato stations.
Bus - 6, 9 and 74 (on Rua Alexandre Herculano)
720, 738 and 727 (on Rua Braancamp) |
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