ArtisVita.com
Ralf Witthaus



                                                                                            
Exhibition july 5th to july 27th 2007 		ralf_witthaus_portrait.jpg
Photo by courtesy of Jörg Stuke

[... ] Similarly he worked on book covers, which served him as a base for drawings. On this, with economical design, with “collage” material, text fragments and every now and then also with tear traces, which witnessed the removing of the book block, absurd scenes and landscapes were born. Witthaus calls this group of works book cover landscapes.
Why books? "The book is the symbol for education, for memory and historical reminiscence. The destroyed books allude to past time and to today, they ask, which effects the past has on the present ", says Witthaus.
In contrast to the small format mode of expression, which, if it should be taken into account publicly, demands  nevertheless the viewer to visit a museum or a gallery (topic: fear of the threshold), Witthaus  loves the public area. Numerous land art projects are on the account of the young artist [... ] In landscape art Witthaus also estimates the direct, open contact with humans. "I get direct reactions, if I work on the lawn somewhere", say the artist, who must let himself be asked first, who permitted all this. Certainly it is also a little provocation, if he raises the lawn mowing, a domain of the middle class itself, into the range of the art.

Uta Jostwerner, Westfalen-Blatt 227, September 28 2004
Some exhibitions:
2006 Städt. Galerie Nordhorn, D, (E/R)

Goethe-Institut Rotterdam, NL, (E/R)

Vorgebirgspark Skulptur, Köln, D, (G/R/K)

aquamediale, Lübben, D, (G/K)

Galerie Lutz Rohs, Düren, D, (G/R)

Galerie im Tulla, Mannheim, D (G)

Luisenpark Mannheim, D, (E/R)
2005
zwischengrün, Kunstverein Leipzig, D, (G/R)

Fuhrwerkswaage, Köln, D, (G/R/K)

Kunstraum Rampe, Bielefeld, D, (G)

Ausstellungsraum Jürgen Bahr, Köln, D, (G)

Comme ci comme ca III, Üxheim/Eifel, D, (G/R)

Museum für verwandte Kunst, Köln, D, (G)

(E) single exhibition, (G) group exhibition, (R) lawn mower drawing, (K) catalogue

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Maler und Modell (painter and model)
 17. Jahrhundert (17th century)
 Puzzle
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Schloßplatz Münster
 Spiegelarbeit, Bielefeld
 Lob der Berge, Nordhorn
(praise of the mountains)
original text (german)
 vita (germlan)
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