Press article
Pure pleasure
Drawings by Klaus Soppe in the Garching community center
Garching - It's the moment that counts, what the eye captures and the hand translates into drawings. The artistic form of expression of drawing is not only the most direct seismograph of feelings, it also reveals talent and craft. And yet the art of drawing is not so much a craft alone but rather an organ work, that is, the ability to draw is integrated into the individual.
A person like this doesn't draw, he is a drawing. For Klaus Soppe, drawing is the primal force that drives him, from which he draws; it is, as the artist, who was born in Duisburg in 1961, himself defines, “pure pleasure, pure drug”. According to Soppe, the ability to read out certain specifications is what is so attractive about the drawing, the real aim. Making banalities interesting, giving circumstances your own perspective, all of this is possible, and Soppe is an ardent supporter of traditional craftsmanship when the knowledge of anatomy. The relationship between line and form is present. “This is the only way living figures can be created.” Living Figures Soppe’s figures are single. Sometimes there are detailed lines that in other pictures have an almost photographic character, sometimes they are shifted and only sketched. The shape and lines have momentum, giving the figure freshness and, above all, authenticity.
No, Soppe doesn't want to gloss over, he draws what he sees, and that's exactly what beauty is. What is impressive, and the exhibition shows this very comprehensively, is Soppe's versatility. Landscape paintings, portraits, nudes, still lifes and illustrations show an artist who observes with a keen eye and implements what he sees. And he always manages to learn new languages. Speaking, giving personality and individuality to his drawings.
The fact that an exhibition only presents drawings by an artist once is nothing but praiseworthy. Unfortunately, drawing only comes in times of fast pace and there is no renaissance in search of pure entertainment value. It is the basic substance for every image, the elixir for every form and spatiality. Ernst Jünger described this direct relationship to the world as a “grown primal force” that endures.
Prerequisite: “The eye must retain the strength, even if only for the span of one serve, to see the works of this marriage as on the first day.” Klaus Soppe has this strength.
NICOLE GRANER