Indeed, Brice Marden is known to work on a painting for a
very long time. He toiled over The Propitious Garden of Plane Image,
Second Version and The Propitious Garden of Plane, Image Third
Version for six years, from 2000 to 2006. He's happy that these two
large versions, which measure around two by seven meters, are now on view
in Berlin next to each other. In San Francisco, a smaller version, 1.10
meters by 3.6 meters, hung next to a big version, while in New York it was
only possible to hang the two large versions across from one another. Now
in Berlin they can finally be compared directly, he says. He's overjoyed
about this, because now the big difference between the two executions will
be apparent.
Brice
Marden: The Propitious Garden of Plane Image, Third Version
(Photographed
unfinished in May 2006), 2000-2006
Collection
the artist. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
©2006
Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Is
this because of the denser lines in the third version and particularly due
to the greater luminosity of its colors? Yes, he says. His feel for
different colors in general stands more out than in New York or San
Francisco. The exhibition situation occupies him, he says. In New York
there was hardly any natural light, and in San Francisco too much, so the
rooms had to be darkened. In the natural light of the Hamburger Bahnhof,
he says, he suddenly discovered a powerful aspect in both versions of The
Propitious Garden of Plane Image that he hadn't seen before. He's not
sure about the light in the other rooms of the Hamburger Bahnhof. He finds
it very natural, although it's probably a mixture of artificial and
natural light. It's a radiantly bright, powerful, natural light. The
paintings look very colorful. And he painted them, he adds, in a similar
powerful natural light.
Brice
Marden: 6 Red Rock I, 2000-2002
Robert
and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, Phoenix, Maryland
©2006
Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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What is the situation like when he paints? "What role does
music play for you when you paint?" For example, Bob Dylan? Brice Marden
is very sure about this: "He sang for me." – "Oh!" – He grins with
amusement and then admits that Dylan sang for all of them, back then, but
he insists that he sang for him in particular somehow. And who sings for
him today? "Jay-Z."
– "Oh!" – Is that right, Brice Marden listens to Hip Hop? His amusement
grows. Yes, he says, he did The Propitious Garden of Plane Image
with rap and hip-hop playing in the background, especially Jay-Z. When he
was younger and had his studio in Manhattan, he drowned out the street
noise, which disturbed his concentration when he painted, with music. His
choice of music at that time was as important as his choice of paintbrush.
Later, when he transferred his studio in the early 90s to the country, to
Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, he worked without music. But now, although his
current studio in Rose Hill is also in a rural area, in Tivoli, New York,
he has returned to his old mode of working and again defines how he paints
with his selection of music and vice versa.
Brice
Marden: Untitled # 3, 1986-87
Agnes
Gund Collection
©2006 Brice
Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The
fact that he listens to Jay-Z indicates that Brice Marden is an urbane
artist through and through. Even though he says that nature is a
fundamental source of inspiration for him: "My painting comes from
nature." I find it hard to recognize this in his works, particularly in
the paintings he executed in the mid-80s, whose horizontal and vertical
lines show a geometry, in my eyes, which I relate to the city. To me, they
represent an sophisticated view of the steep high-rising rectangles of
skyscrapers, the uniform color surfaces that buildings, streets, or
squares take on due to the special incidence of light, darkened by mighty
shadows or wan and pale on account of glistening sunlight. But the grid
has in the meantime given way to very kinetic lines laid over one another?
And so the landscape format of Adriatic (1972/73) and Nebraska
(1966) shows a view of open nature extending to the horizon? I must admit
that the pleasure of talking to him grows in the course of our
conversation. And I have to admit that I nevertheless still want to make
my point regarding the city. So I ask Brice Marden whether it is a special
feeling to exhibit in Berlin. Yes, he says, he's never had a show in
Berlin. He's had one in Kassel, at the documenta,
which he's not going to visit now. But he's mainly had exhibitions in
Cologne and Köln and Düsseldorf. There was even a time "in the 60s when I
felt better accepted and more well known than in the U.S." In any case, he
expects to encounter a seriously interested audience in Berlin because
"Berlin is of course a very active art city and a good place for painting."
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