Katrin Loret — Friedrich Kunath : New Ballads

, Tim Van Laere Books, 2021, 2021 80 pagina's, illustraties in kleur, 25,5 x 20,5 cm, hardcover, Duits/Engels/Frans. ISBN 9789464004083. The universe of Friedrich Kunath is carefully balanced around dichotomies. His paintings address the greater questions in life, bringing viewers into a disruptive state of searching for meaning in life while realizing the ridiculousness of this quest. The artist?s personal journey from East to West Berlin and on to his new-found home in Los Angeles presented him with a wide variety of source material ranging from the canon of art history and German philosophy to the idiom of kitsch and the make-believe world of Hollywood and LA. Many of these materials are impacted by two poles ? the culture of wisdom and pop culture ? to the point of obsession and even, at times, systematization. Dealing with such universal themes of human existence as love, loss, optimism, vulnerability and melancholy, he employs a variety of media, from painting, sculpture, drawing, video and photography to expansive installations, all provided with a tragicomic pathos and dreams of possibilities. In almost every work, there is a tangible realization that the world is a spectacle of unfulfilled dreams in which the rawness of life is fled through the parallel universe of pop culture.