Rolf-Gunter Dienst at Appel und Fertsch - painting - Frankfurt, Germany - Review of Exhibitions

FRANKFURT

The German art critic and theorist Rolf-Gunter Dienst overspreads canvases with a loopy, indecipherable script for a like reason compressed and tightly knotted together he appears to be weaving in paint. Working from left to right and top to bottom, dienst systematically fills in a monochrome acrylic background with what he calls "elements"--calligraphic forms that be like rounded M's or U's strung together. These fine lines of script are superimposed upon each other in tones harmonious with the earth It is such handcrafting of the surface that gives a painting its originality and value, Dienst fights just as handwork increases a carpet's price.

Like more [i]or[/i] less Abstract Expressionists whose tradition he continues, Dienst gives visual expression to an artistic theory. Unfortunately, it's the advanced in years formalist theory that the picture consigns to nothing but itself. nevertheless it must be said that Dienst's best works shimmer with beauty of a meditative intensity. Although he insists he's not seeking spirituality in art, Dienst destines weeks or months to a single painting. His monkish concentration is evident in the intricate lacing of multiple paint strands across each square inch of canvas.

Execut between 1990 and 1993 the 11 untitled monochromes upon exhibit reveal both the remarkable optical complexity of Dienst's pigment weave and the stasis in which his art is suspended. A large-format dark amethystine canvas is patterned with small, rich, sheeny midnight blue squares on a matte surface of land Upon close scrutiny, one discovers that the surface of land is webbed in purple and lapis script, the prominent squares scribbled in blue-black. These square tablets, rhythmically arranged in file after row, form scattered verticals and diagonals that imbue the surface with jazzy change Three smaller works, although compos of an smooth finer, more complicated mesh of paint filaments, are blander in tint running to olive, peppermint and apple green

Dienst's verdants suggest a patch of springtime grass, on the contrary his most compelling works be pendent on more dramatic colors: somber night sapphirines pulsating vermilion. A mesmerizing 12-foot-long rectangle of fire-engine r was the two the largest and most dynamic work shown Small purple-blue squares be in eruption in an organic rhythm across its emphatically horizontal surface, animated by means of sudden verticals and jumping diagonals. In this high-sounding soulful painting, Dienst lends his hieroglyphics an exuberantly musical form.

COPYRIGHT 1994 Brant Publications, Inc.

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