Elsa Zorkow

copyright 97-08
Web-Design Antony


 

PAINTING

 

SCULPTURES

 

ART TRAINING


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Born 1938 in Berlin, grown up in Obersdorf.
Law studies. Journeys to New York, Israel, Greece, Japan, Tunisia, Canada and South Africa.
Studies of Art in Brussels, Anderlecht and Trier.
Lives in the netherlands, works as free painter and art trainer.

There may seem to be a contradiction in the fact that a psychoanalyst - whose job consists in helping his fellow human beings probe their innermost world of sensations and thoughts - should provide an analysis of a mode of expression which is primarily of a visual order. Yet, how could one face such works without feeling at once profoundly touched and affected in our sensibility, and without realizing that an intimate communication establishes itself right away between the vital force that emanates from the canvases and the life pulsations that inhabit us. This, in any case, was the surprise that we had when we first got acquainted with Elsa Zorkow's work. The first canvas we ever saw - it bore no title and its subject was not recognizable at once - seemed to vibrate und pulsate with an exceptional chromatic intensity, then, quite suddenly, we experienced the revelation of the recognition of two boxers: quite imperceptibly, we had been absorbing a part of the painting's vitality and getting aware of the echo it produced in us. Each of Elsa Zorkow's works might have a similar effect: it pierces the natural defenses of our sensibility and reaches into our innermost self. Instead of bringing us under the spelf of a charming picture and attractive colours, the artist penetrates the secret recesses of our perception and awakens a life that was slumbering in us.
Elsa Zorkow's work does not appeal to our intellect and cannot easily be rendered in words or rationalized in terms of thought. It is quite autonomous on the strength of its pictorial qualities and thus revives in us the active dynamism of a life freed from its social and civilized bonds. It carries no literary reference, no metaphysical preoccupation and no deliberate elaboration on formal pictorial problems. The occasional vehement vitalism of its execution brings to mind the exuberant sense of freedom that characterizes "art brut". Elsa Zorkow's painting flourishes like life itself. It is not based on thought or knowledge, but erupts in a vital flow of lines and colours, tensions and rhythms.
Zorkow paints with all the resources of her being, with body and soul. The genesis of her works is akin to the one of life: conception, gestation and birth, resulting in a new life wchich berars its own development. As an artist, she is open to any sensory, emotional, sentimental or esthetic impulse emanating from the surrounding world. She compares herself laughingly to a sponge absorbing everyday experiences as well as dreams and memories. All emotions, whether joyful or painful are associated with visual, tactile or musical impressions, from which in turn is derived that mysterious element academically known as inspiration. The artist's active part consists in the pictorial transformation of elements which, though live, still needed to be molded into a definite shape.
When she then starts creating her works, Elsa Zorkow seems to be guided by the vital stream that fills her being and upon which she imposes subtle derivations, slight interventions which will determine the original personality of a new living body: a painting. Sharply contrasting colours, wild movements and rhythms, bold and firm contours, all contribute to the shaping of a powerful, tumultuous and highly lyrical presence.
One may ask now, in the course of the elaboration of the painting, the figurative subject is treated. It is sometimes quite identifiable within the turbulence of lines and colours: a nude, boxers or wrestlers, an embracing couple, a tree ... at other times all shapes dissolve into a mere latent presence. But in either case it is the incadencent core of the painting: it rather aims at encomplassing the total fullness and richness of its existence instead of being restricted to an abstraction, it is the result of a process of concretion. The figure of a tree, for instance, far from being reduced to a few lines, evokes at the same time the rustling of its leaves, the play of light and shadow on its foliage, the buzzing of animal life, the power of its secret life which will entail the succession of buds, leaves, blossoms, fruit ... it may also happen that the original motif, through all these mutations, finally leads to a shape of pure effervescence ...
Many more elements are present in the creative process of Elsa Zorkow. Let us mention only the introduction of "collages" into the paintings. They are not a mere technical trick in the present case, but one more genuine extension of the vital power contained in her work. Elsa Zorkow occasionally "tears", as she says, valid sections out of former works which, she feels, are unsatisfactory. These fragments are then re-integrated into new canvases without in any way being altered: they simply inject into the work in being a new degree of dynamism and lead to a reorganization of the whole composition. Finally, when we look at a finished painting, we are surprised to get the feeling that the creative process seems to remain active. The work has been imbued with its proper life. Even after a long acquaintance with Elsa Zorkow's work, one keeps discovering novel interpretations, unexpected configurations, formerly undetected tensions. Emotions and esthetic enjoyment are ever renewed or intensified. It is almost as if the creative power with which the paintings have been infused can be kept in check only by the material limitations of the frame.
There is, in Elsa Zorkow's works, no appearant break or contrast between her rather recent entry into an artistic career and the charm of her attractive maturity. She seems to have achieved a perfect and fruitful combination of youth and maturity: her life-experiences have brought about a degree of serenity which tempers the youthful exuberance of a pictorial passion. Thanks to this maturity, she will be able to overcome the uncertainties and hesitations that are so common at the beginning of a career. Her contribution to the art of painting of our time answers poet Lorand Gaspar's requirement as he declared: " Art has to be an elucidation, a spreading of the forces of nature, of which we are a part."
Michel De Wolf


Awards
1987
First Award for aquarelles, Art Center of Rouge-Cloitre, Brussels, Belgium
1989
First Award for Oil Paintings, (UFACI), Kobe, Japan


 

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