Jutta Koether
A Subject is the Local Occurance of a Process of Truth, 2001

Artist
Jutta Koether

Title
A Subject is the Local Occurance of a Process of Truth

Year of creation
2001

Technique and dimensions
Different materials on canvas, 270 x 300 cm, variable dimensions

Year of acquisition
2008

Acquisition of the foundation

As a central figure in contemporary painting, Jutta Koether also takes up other art forms outside of painting: she is a performance artist, musician, writer, critic and theorist. The artist, who was born in Cologne in 1958 and has lived in New York since the early 1990s, sees herself primarily as a painter, so that the various media she uses can be seen in a painterly context. However, it is always important for Koether not to take on a specific and clear role as an artist, but rather to keep several positions open. Since moving to New York, she has moved into an expanded field of experimentation and improvisation, literature and theory in the local scene. She seems to draw her inspiration from these alternative avenues of art and is trying to re-examine the medium of painting from a different approach and make it accessible. In her work a subject is the local occurrence of a process of truth, the viewer becomes aware of her play with painting.

With the shimmering metal curtain, which is hung in front of a picture in black, dark tones, she addresses three-dimensionality and brings painting and object art together in one work. Her affinity for language is also clear: the critic and editor of the music and pop culture magazine Spex gives the work a meaningful and open title and works in many works with words or sentences that are written into the picture. Viewed through the curtain, a very imaginative and individual image is created for each viewer. She includes elements of surprise in her works and seems to intend to mislead and work on them constructively. She also sees the artist only as a result of the developments and discourses around him and is therefore interested in the artist's subjectivity.