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Mafant
Tilo Baumgärtel seems to have aligned his figures with the "multioption society" as Peter Gross calls it, referring to the way in which large sections of society have dispensed with the concept of salvation. Representatives of this exlstence appear slack and voiceless, thrust involuntarily into a particular and often peculiar set of circumstances - slumped on the ground in a makeshift campsite next to an amphitheatr... more >>
Tilo Baumgärtel seems to have aligned his figures with the "multioption society" as Peter Gross calls it, referring to the way in which large sections of society have dispensed with the concept of salvation. Representatives of this exlstence appear slack and voiceless, thrust involuntarily into a particular and often peculiar set of circumstances - slumped on the ground in a makeshift campsite next to an amphitheatre, or sharing a cigarette with an Eskimo during a thunderstorm, for example. The characters in his paintings thus appear strangely inactive - lethargic perhaps, or simply without purpose.
Baumgärtel is not a social analyst, but he is a realist when it comes to his own inner worlds - there is something down-to-earth and believable about the strange scenarios he concocts. His worldly yet unworldly approach is reflected in deliberately neutral yet curiously retrospective attire - his characters regularly appear in period costume from one era or another. This, however, is only a trick to liberate himself from rules and norms. He sometimes leaves realism behind and gets closer to fantasy when he turns to exaggeration as a strategy, whether in the form of an oversized animal or a figure verging on caricature.
by Christoph Tannert (in: Vitamin P2 - New Persectives in Painting, Phaidon 2011)
