Beethoven's Pulse in Oil Colors: Frauenschuh's Symphony Studies (1/3)
Studies on the 7th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven
Today I immerse myself once again completely in the world of Ludwig van Beethoven, in his music and his life. Already in the early morning, I let his 7th Symphony flood the room, while I paint with oil on plywood. I have deliberately chosen the wooden support: plywood gives me the freedom to cut out, shape later, to give the picture an organic form - just as Beethoven understood his music not as a static object, but as a malleable, living force.
Die Lautstärke korrigierte ich bald to top. Ich versuche die rhythmischen Wellen der Sinfonie mit meinen eigenen Atem gleichzuschalten und ebenso meinen Pinselgang rhythmisch zu synchronisieren. Dieses Werk, so vital und organisch aufgebaut, wirkt auf mich wie ein lebendiges Wesen bzw. ein lebender Organismus, welches atmet und wächst.
My color selection today revolves around yellow and green tones. Forms emerge that remind me of insect armor and shell shapes - structures that appear as alive in their construction as the music I hear. Forms and colors push over the wood, intertwine, separate again - like motifs in Beethoven's seventh symphony, which continually dissolve and recombine.
While I paint, it becomes clear to me how much my painting today resembles Kneading of modeling clay resembles: a relentless pressing, pulling, reshaping, until new shapes emerge. Almost like an act of creation or like in the Frankenstein story, in which life is created from non-life. In this act, the alchemical formula resonates for me "Solve et Coagula" resonates: dissolve and coagulate, dismantle and reconnect. It's as if something dissolves during the painting process, perhaps old visual certainties, to then reassemble into something that breathes, pulses, and perhaps exists somewhere between music and visual form.
The relentless forward drive of Beethoven's 7th Symphony guides my hand, and I repeatedly ask myself: Where does sound end, and form begin? Where does music end and image begin? What pulse might music and painting share? And can the creature before me perhaps breathe like a living being when it is first cut out of the wood and placed in the space?
