Anna Maria Brandstätter lives on the banks of a vast river, the Danube. Day in, day out, large amounts of water stream by her house. That is to say, a constant flow, everything is permanently in motion. There is no stagnation, not a single droplet of water will pass by her small sanctuary on the shores of the Danube for a second time.
Feather and India ink are her preferred media of creation in Brandstätter’s graphic arts. Spaces of colour, dynamic, swirling lines flow like waves through the basic tenor of her works. These forms grow, expand, contract and pulsate like a living organism. Light and dark gradients of colour create a luminescent effect – we can see how the light is cast upon the multitude of colour. It penetrates the form, gives it transparency and breathes life of an art reality into it.
Every physical entity has a defined external form, a specific, distinctive and individual nature. The objects are constantly transformed. Every plant, every animal, every person continues to shape his or her overall context. This reality is identifiable in all creations of the universe, no matter how big or small, how prominent or mundane the creations of nature are. Thus a piece of driftwood washed ashore by a strong current can become the key to an explanatory model that resides in the studio of an artist.
Let us focus on a detail of that organic flotsam, whereby we recognize delicate structures in it’s shape. This is the moment wherein we realize the filigree, abstract detail within the objective form.
If we were to closer observe the play of waves on a serene lake the grooves on the tips of our fingers or maybe even the growth lines on animal hide, we would notice certain patterns which ultimately indicate the pulsating, the dynamics of the elements, ones own formation and the forming through external factors. In organic natural forms, a rhythmic design often becomes apparent. (…)
In all physical presences lies an underlying permanent change. This is an especially important topic in the works of Anna Maria Brandstätter.
Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) is rumored to have said ‘I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.’
Following this metaphor, the works of Anna Maria Brandstätter may be seen as artistically created shells and pebbles, as precious findings, the point of which may be to help us along somewhat with the localization of our own existence in the vast river of life.
Dr.in Brigitte Reutner-Doneus
LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz
o.T. , 2023
