In Search of the Absolute
Atlas Gallery in London presents the mid-career retrospective of German artist Frauke Eigen, a minimalist who strips scenes and shapes to their essence.
The exhibition encompasses work spanning 23 years of career, which started in 1995 with a series of burned walls in Rostock, Germany. Petrol bombs were thrown at an apartment block where asylum seekers lived, and the photographer transformed this episode of violence, and later the exhumation of mass grave victims in Kosovo, in moments of reflection focused on the traces these episodes left, rather than offering any element of context.
“I was interested in the idea of how much you can reduce a picture with regard to content”, the photographer said about her own work. Her photographs became progressively more abstract over the years and started pursuing beauty as a form of healing. Japanese art, with its slower pace and attention to detail, decisively pushed her forward in her purist research.
The exhibition “Frauke Eigen” is on view at Atlas Gallery in London until May 13.
