NORBERT BISKY (B. 1970)
Masse II
signed twice, titled and dated twice '"Masse II" Bisky 2013' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
39³⁄₈ x 31⁵⁄₈in. (100.1 x 80.4cm.)
Painted in 2013

Wendt + Friedmann Galerie, Berlin.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2013.

I find myself again and again surprised by many phenomena. Things that look beautiful from the outside but are terrible on the inside. I attempt to create paintings, which I find visually pleasing, but also address the latent dread and discomfort I feel myself every day. I want to catch things on many levels, but I refuse to portray them in a dark, gothic-like aesthetic — rather in a language I find appealing myself. It’s about the aesthetic, which surrounds us every day. We all are aware of the dangers of capitalism, but at the same time it seems sweet and charming from the outside.

- Norbert Bisky

In assured strokes of oil on canvas, Leipzig-born artist Norbert Bisky’s Masse II is an exuberant tessellation of form. Intertwined amidst an array of energetic brushwork and pastel colour, a group of male figures are suspended weightlessly, caught in time and pictorial space. Twisting and contorting with sculptural dynamism, their anatomies blur, seeming to almost sublimate within a foaming sea of movement. The canvas was painted in 2013, the same year the artist created the set design for the Berlin State Ballet’s production of ‘Masse’, which premiered at the iconic Berlin nightclub Berghain. Combining the graphic punch of twentieth-century Pop with Renaissance and Baroque classicism, Bisky’s painting is a triumph of beauty, sexuality, and dance.