Karl Stengel

Stengel’s ‘German’ formation and his solid figurative preparation comes to the forefront in his works on paper. While in his larger canvases, generally acrylics on canvas, his art focuses on basic emotions: brightly coloured rectangles that appear to stand out against the canvas hovering above the surface, shimmering and wide-ranging blocks of colour. A principle of figuration emerges and then develops with the typical Stengelian figure, a human silhouette that stands out on an imaginary theatrical backdrop. A man without meaning in front of the world stage. The same silhouette also appears in many oil pastels on paper. The works in the music series are influenced by composers or musicians that Stengel listened to in his studio while he painted. Here the works are clearly abstract, yet one can sometimes still see suggestions of musical scores.