Brigitte Stahl

The first thing that strikes one about Brigitte Stahl’s works is her approach to the material and her tiny interventions in it. The materials are simple, often cheap, and they convey an impression that suggests found objects: patterned, painted paper, cardboards, and films, wood, glass, Formica, casein paint, enamel, tape—these materials for the basis for all of Brigitte Stahl’s works.

In the harmony of material, surface, texture, color, plasticity, and form, her works evolve sensitively arranged delicacies, betraying an aesthetic sense that knows precisely the line where roughness becomes ugly and beauty boring.

A key concept for an understanding of Brigitte Stahl’s artistic thinking is composition, in its literal meaning as “putting together.” The composition is not a result but a state in a process in which materials and forms are gently deconstructed and recomposed.

This process begins with a special sense for details that is essential to Brigitte Stahl’s work—in both small and large formats. This process ends temporarily with the viewer, only to reflect on the work again. This occurs naturally, without hurdles or friction. Some pieces have to be forced into their new position, sometimes violently, resulting in rough patches, warping, and vexation. Correspondingly, as a viewer one feels compelled to decode the composed objects and materials, to separate them from the significance of their original context, to grasp them as a new artistic phenomenon.