Kunstkritik by Marta Lock

2021.11.03  veröffentlicht in : https://www.lopinionista.it/la-delicatezza-impalpabile-delle-opere-floreali-di-margot-vogl-a-meta-tra-espressionismo-e-lestetismo-delle-decorazioni-liberty-113355.html

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The impalpable delicacy of Margot Vogl's floral works, halfway between Expressionism and the aestheticism of Art Nouveau decorations

Contemporary art often takes on existential connotations, becoming a means of releasing a silent interiority that manages to manifest itself in the creative gesture, or it becomes an opportunity to represent a more or less pleasant contemporary reality on the basis of the individual artist's approach to existence; in other cases, however, the need to express one's own sensations blends with the ability to grasp beauty, that aesthetic side left behind because it is less of a priority than the deepest feelings, yet able to become a mediation and an opportunity to find lost harmony. This is the creative path that distinguishes the artist we are going to discover today.

 The transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century was characterised by strong cultural and artistic contrasts due to the stylistic innovations introduced by Impressionism, on which Post-Impressionism later imposed itself, the theories of the Fauves, which took shape a few years later with the birth of Expressionism, and finally the spread of the contemporary Art Nouveau style, also known as Art Nouveau, Modernism, Arts and Crafts, Sezession, depending on the European country to which the adehernt artists belonged. The contrasts between the movements of the time were not only stylistic but also philosophical because there were opposing points of view on what art should represent, on what the message contained in a canvas should be. So the aesthetic focus of Impressionism, the desire to capture the light and emphasise the beauty of a landscape, the pleasantness of life, letting the eye lose itself in the surrounding nature, contrasted with the Expressionist intention of abandoning any rule of perspective, any harmonious scheme, because all that needed to emerge from the canvas was the author's deep, intense, often stormy feelings, and it mattered little if the result appeared ugly, distorted or deformed. On the other hand, however, to underline how divided the artistic scene of the time was, emerged a cultural movement that wanted to recover beauty as an end in itself, the decorative ability that had to strike the eye before the soul, and that would involve different fields, from sculpture to architecture, from decoration to painting, trying to reunite the gap between art and craftsmanship, between create and giving life to a work of art. Art Nouveau, one of the names of the movement, emphasised the importance of nature within existence, an aesthetic contact but also necessary for man to understand the beauty of simplicity, of that surrounding world often able to make us forget the objective contingency which is not always satisfying. Leaves, flowers, multicoloured birds, iconic women, elegant and ethereal, distinguished the paintings, prints and stained glass windows belonging to this artistic style in which the poetic gaze was predominant over any other reality. The German artist Margot Vogl embraces two opposing extremes, Art Nouveau and Expressionism, to create a delicate, light, impalpable style that is not only and exclusively oriented towards exterior research but is able to spread to the emotional world as lightly as the appearance of her canvases. The world of nature, the lyrical beauty of leaves and flowers act as an enveloping cloak for the eye, transforming her artworks into ideal worlds within which one has the sensation of being able to find that serenity, that calm that all too often outside, in daily reality, is not possible; here, then, art becomes a means of escaping towards something more pleasant, of evading towards an impalpable dimension, not devoid of emotion but imbued with more positive sensations than those that are turbulent or overwhelming. Margot Vogl's world is dreamy, soft, enveloping for all those floral representations that seem to want to invite the observer to enter the artist's dimension, that secret treasure chest in which to cradle the purest desires, in which to place hopes and wishes because it is precisely within that universe that the human being can rise, find contact with a simpler and more spontaneous self; The reference to Art Nouveau emerges precisely from this choice of leaves and flowers as a pictorial base but also as the absolute protagonists, in some cases, of fresh, reassuring, delicate canvases and perhaps for this very reason so engaging. In the painting Sommerwind (Summer Wind), Vogl evokes the colours of the most beautiful and carefree season, telling the story in its least fascinating way perhaps, she does not describe the sea, the beach, the views, but probably the most natural, the most spontaneous, the most beautiful without the need to appear in an obvious way; those orange leaves, the yellow and blue background perfectly succeed in instilling the same feeling of light-heartedness, of sunshine and warmth as in more figurative views. In Das Glück wächst draußen (Happiness grows outside), the artist emphasises how subtle yet solid is the connection between the human soul and the nature he inhabits, that capacity for interaction which is often ignored even though it is present, before our eyes, and it is solely up to the individual to welcome it and enjoy its beauty, its harmony, or to continue to pretend not to see it even though it, nature, continues to tend towards that emotional contact; in this decidedly expressionist work, the tones tend towards the dream, that veiled desire to encounter existential serenity and the ability to rejoice in all the simplicity that would belong to life if man were able to discern its true essence. Just as in 100 Meilen unter dem Meer (One Hundred Miles Under the Sea), the artist explores the seabed, observing it as if it were a fantastic world in which to lose oneself, to imagine life, full of light, not dark as the seabed should be, but enlivened by the colours of the underwater plants, delicate and fluctuating just like her imagination, her desire for softness and delicacy that belongs to all her painting but also to her nature; in this painting, too, what emerges is an almost naive positivity, a desire to get away from the obstacles of everyday life and to find a place, be it imaginary or real, where one can take refuge and live a different life. When Margot Vogl introduces the human figure, she draws close to Marc Chagall's dreamlike and at the same time playful atmospheres, to his representational naivety, which has always been able to raise audiences of all ages to a childlike dimension, where the surrounding environment harmonises with and supports the narrated emotion; just as light and serene is the emotion one receives when observing the twentieth-century master's works, as relaxed and dreamy is the one that emerges from the canvas Du und ich (You and I), where the love narrated is not that between a man and a woman, but that towards an animal, an owl, through which the artist intends to emphasise and highlight the purity of a bond far removed from any ulterior motive, from any convenience that often belongs to relations between humans. In this canvas, too, the sensation is that of being in a fairy-tale realm where nature once again becomes a stage that is in harmony with the character's feelings, because the colours are in tune with the woman's state of mind, leading her, through that spontaneous bond, to reflect on herself, on her own existence and on the importance of seeking real, true emotions; only through the ability to distance oneself from materialism, from the pragmatism of the contemporary world, is it possible to recover one's own substance and that of everything that belongs to living. Margot Vogl needs to experiment and measure herself with different painting techniques, pastel, watercolour, acrylic, ink, collage, drawing, graphic print, which often merge in her artworks to amplify the feeling of magic and lightness belonging to her style. She has had many group exhibitions in Germany and abroad - Italy, Poland, Portugal - and two major solo exhibitions in Munich and Pucheim.
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