Tim Eitel’s contemplative portrayals of modern society have positioned the artist at the forefront of contemporary German painting. His ethereal portraits transpose subjects taken from scenes of everyday life into an alternative reality devoid of nearly all descriptive details. A single painting, park or empty wall becomes a minimalist backdrop for Eitel’s figures. Often engaged in ordinary activities like observing art or walking through nature, Eitel’s subjects are vessels for exploring the ways in which humans interact with the spaces they occupy.
In Blau und Gelb, 2002, a figure stands in front of a fabricated rendition of a Piet Mondrian work. The crisp perpendicular lines of a teal barrier and black railing towards the lower half of the painting seem to incorporate the figure into the composition of the Mondrian work. This conflation of space and figure into a concise narrative scene is a defining facet of Eitel’s work. Using these distilled slices of life, he explores the idiosyncrasies of spatial relationships in the modern world. Often choosing to depict figures with their back turned or looking away, Eitel employs a sense of anonymity to make his artistic investigations more salient.
“My paintings have something to do with the fact that we are surrounded by so many images, but we cannot fully decode them as language. My images are open and closed at the same time. You have to read them as images—it makes absolutely no sense to analyze them linguistically.”
—Tim Eitel
According to the artist, his opinions and practice with regards to referencing Mondrian have changed over time. Early works by Eitel were in his words, “direct references” that “analyzed the spaces of and for art” through scenes of museum interiors.i However, he notes that the contradictions within Mondrian’s work carry a certain personal association for him–one of a “totally rational, lifeless structure, behind which you find this utopian theory of salvation.”ii Eitel’s allusions to Mondrian’s distinct aesthetic propel both the spatial analysis and examination of the overarching human condition that have come to define his oeuvre.
