Franziska Holstein
o. T. (3/18 DHV)_2021 | o. T. (4/18 DHV)_2021
Two wall works by Franziska Holstein, donated to the MdbK by the collector Johann Georg Ültzen, adorn the large longitudinal wall in the newly refurbished event hall. Diagonal, horizontal, and vertical - these are the construction principles on which the serial work ‘DHV’ (2021) by Franziska Holstein (*1978 Leipzig) is based.Franziska Holstein realised two works from the series as floor-to-ceiling works for the MdbK.
The Work
Franziska Holstein often creates works that are arranged as a sequence of several individual images. This also applies to the two wall-filling rectangular fields in the MdbK's new event space. While soundproofing elements and event technology are accommodated on three walls of this room, the fourth was left blank. This wall is pierced in the middle by a door, with a 3.5 x 5 metre wall area on each side. This provided the space for Holstein's work.
The two sequences have no actual title. Their motifs come from a screen print series that the artist created in 2021. They are numbers 3 (left hand) and 4 (right hand) of an 18-part series. The entire series is labelled with the Roman numeral I. Later, two further screen print series, also in 18 parts, were created that vary this composition. They were created in 2022 (II) and 2023 (III) respectively.
Each individual image in these series is further qualified by up to three letters, which correspond to the systematics of the composition: D(iagonal), H(orizontal) and V(ertical). If, for example, an image field is gridded by horizontal and vertical linearity, it is labelled ‘HV’.
The two wall panels of the lecture theatre are each designated by all three letters, so they are divided diagonally, horizontally and vertically. This results in a complex interplay of light blue and white surfaces. Beyond their integration into the overall sequence, both works pose the question of which colour actually dominates the surface. In other words, are the forms created by omitting or adding colour? Do we see blue on white or white on blue?
The format correspondence between the two pictorial fields then encourages us to explore the underlying system. How are the two fields connected? Or, to put it another way: what has happened formally from No. 3 to No. 4? Here, too, the answer is not obvious. In fact, the individual diagonals appear to be identical and to have been transferred from left to right. At the same time, however, there are shifts in the forms on the horizontal and vertical axes. As a result, the two pictorial fields appear completely different in formal terms, but are clearly connected at the same time.
The appeal of this wall design lies in its minimalist structure - the vertical, diagonal and horizontal division with the resulting two-colour forms - as well as in its formal complexity, which subtly explores the limits of perception, while the intensification of the pictorial means - three lines, two colours - results in a parallel to writing. However, Holstein's ‘signs’ elude a further level of meaning, namely semantics, i.e. the precise relationship between sign and meaning. Attention thus remains focussed on the artistic qualities and decisions that give the individual sequences, especially in the form of monumental wall works, their aesthetic effect: the precision of execution, for example, so that blue and white surfaces enhance each other. A closer look reveals individual details in which the way colours and shapes touch and sometimes seem to penetrate each other is almost exciting.
Ultimately, the interplay of ‘colour as form’ and ‘form as colour’ is the actual event and theme of these pictures and the series on which they are based.
The Artist
Franziska Holstein was born in Leipzig in 1978. From 2000 to 2005, she studied painting at the Academy of Visual Arts (HGB) in Leipzig under Arno Rink. From 2005 to 2008 she was a master student of Neo Rauch.
In 2012, Franziska Holstein was the winner of the SachsenBank Art Prize. The art prize, which was awarded every two years from 2002 to 2014 as a cooperation between the bank and the MdbK, was associated with a purchase for the MdbK collection, an exhibition and a catalogue. The work Untitled (M3-12), 2012 was present in Leipzig's urban space during the corona pandemic and can currently be seen in Bilderkosmos #2. Franziska Holstein lives and works in Leipzig.
Prizes and scholarships
2015 working scholarship from KKV Grafikwerkstatt Malmö, sponsored by Künstlerhaus Lukas | 2014 Lithography Symposium, Steinwerk, Leipzig | 2012- 2013 scholarship at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, awarded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony (KdfS) | 2012 Art Prize of Sachsenbank | 2012 Scholarship in Columbus, Ohio, awarded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony | 2011 Working Scholarship of the Else-Heiliger-Fonds, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung | 2010 Working Scholarship of the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony | 2005 Ars Lipsiensis, Dresdner Bank, Leipzig.
Numerous solo exhibitions and participations in exhibitions.