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The four elements of fire, water, earth and air are important themes in art. The question of the balance between these primal essences is particularly fascinating, and this has not only been the case since climate change became a major issue. Well-known examples from recent art history include the water works of Klaus Rinke, Bill Viola and Roni Horn, the light art of James Turell, the fire drawings of Jannis Kounellis and the stone sculptures of Ulrich Rückriem. Vincent Tavenne, who studied under Rückriem at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and is known for his light, walk-in fabric sculptures, is particularly interested in the changeability of the elements. Since the late 1990s, he has devoted a series of virtuoso, hand-printed, large-format woodcuts to this complex of themes. They are an essential constant alongside his sculptural work. His idealized mountain landscapes of 1998 were followed by clouds in 1999, then flickering fire from 2018 and now a whole series of water depictions. He uses individual self-produced printing blocks to show us the diversity of the water surface, its ever-changing, intangible reflections, shimmering in shape and color. These can be colored and combined in a variety of ways, creating ever new images ranging from romantic to camouflage-like reflections.
For Provinz, a small 8-part unique series in various formats was created, in which the colors blue and green dominate. A photograph of the Rhine under the Zoo Bridge – “Eau de Cologne” so to speak – was the starting point for “Grande eau”, 2024, “Eau, Yoko-e”, 2024 and “Petite eau”, 2024.
Vincent Tavenne was born in Montbéliard, France in 1961 and lives in Berlin. His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions, including solo presentations e.g. 2022 Galerie M29 in Cologne, 2021 at the Kunstverein Rastatt, 2020 at the Galerie der Stadt Backnang, 2020 Outset, Contemporary Art Fund, Athens, 2010 at the Saarlandmuseum Saarbrücken.
