Approaches to a Place. On a Series of Pictures

A visitor and friend of Buchberg Castle and its owners for many years, in 1985 KAMINSKY would paint a picture for a 1930s stucco frame embedded in the wall of the ‘blue salon’. Situated in the medieval wing of the castle, the salon – adorned with late-Renaissance stucco except for the more recent stucco frames for a large mirror and the aforementioned picture frame – houses a large dining room; through its windows one can see exactly the same piece of landscape that KAMINSKY had in his mind’s eye when painting the first picture of the series. Experiencing the early summer landscape and the site itself gave rise to a picture that is unusually colourful for KAMINSKY’s oeuvre. Briefly applied, overlaid brushstrokes in many colours suffuse the canvas and form a directed, organized structure which appears to be in motion.

Having thus produced a ‘summer picture’, it was only natural to continue painting on subsequent visits; that same year two more pictures were created, both of which feature graphic aspects ‒ hence illustrating a property of KAMINSKYesque intentions ‒ and should be categorized as autumnal and winter incarnations of the landscape: one, at first glance appearing almost monochrome, soon reveals a wide range of structures. By overlaying the individual layers of paint, concentrations emerge that nevertheless allow the viewer to perceive silverpoint lines, elongated brushstrokes and translucent paint. The other, more colourful picture, whose density was likewise created with numerous layers, appears to be effectively burst open by fleetingly but deliberately applied graphic brushstrokes. The last picture in the cycle was only created years later, in spring 1993, and is accented with broadly applied brushstrokes and with the strong chromaticity of the yellow (cadmium lemon) in contrast to the white (opaque titanium and scumbling zinc white) and to the light grey.

A common feature of all KAMINSKY’s pictures is their multilayered structures; the interplay of balance and simultaneous restlessness, of flatness and simultaneous spatiality, of overlays and revelations affords the viewer numerous associations.

(Excerpt fromAnnäherungen an einen Ort. Zu einer Serie von Bildern von Thomas Kaminsky in Schloß Buchberg/Kamp [Approaches to a Place. On a Series of Pictures] by Martina Kandeler-Fritsch, in: THOMAS KAMINSKY. SALON, Buchberg 1994)

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