Raphael Bottazzini
READ
21.06.2025
Place
Raphael Bottazzini, Gartenstrasse 72, 4052 Basel
Expectation Paintings
A name alone is not enough. Without context, it loses its anchorage and becomes an abstract sign - legible, but not tangible. In its repetitiveness and interchangeability, the name reveals a paradoxical emptiness: it seems to name something, but what it means remains undefined.what happens when a name - a supposedly identity-forming element - is detached from its social, biographical or historical function? The canvas becomes the projection surface of a reduced gesture: the act of naming without designation, a language without statement - in the end: abstract art.
More text
Niels ten Brink
Title: Susanne Hartmann, Björk – Björk, Susanne Hartmann (SHB – BSH)
The two-part work SHB – BSH consists of two canvases, each measuring 62.2 inches in height and 57.1 inches in width, covered with white cotton fabric. The two parts are separated in the middle but joined together by a visible seam. There are two names in the upper section of both halves of the painting: “Susanne Hartmann” above “Björk” on the left-hand canvas, and in reverse order on the right-hand one. The letters written in charcoal pencil appear almost matter-of-fact, almost like labels - and yet they open up a field full of questions. While the name “Björk” inevitably brings to mind the internationally renowned musician, it remains unclear whether this is actually what is meant. Susanne Hartmann“ also seems to refer to a specific person whose identity remains unclear. The artist gives no clues, deliberately leaving the attributions in limbo. In the lower half of the picture, the words dissolve - not visually, but in terms of content. Instead of names, there are abstract traces of charcoal, strokes, fragments - a reduced, gestural drawing that denies any concrete meaning. SHB – BSH invites us to question attributions: what happens when a name tells no story, when identity is not tangible? The letters lose their function as identifiers and become part of the pictorial structure themselves - fleeting, openly abstract.
2025
Susanne Hartmann, Björk - Björk, Susanne Hartmann. (SHB - BSH)
Raphael Bottazzini
Painting
Charcoal on cotton with sewing machine.
185 x 145 cm / 72.8 x 57.1 in