Draft:Thomas Nolden

Thomas Nolden (born May 12, 1965 in Cologne) is a contemporary German painter. He studied from 1988 to 1994 at the Städelschule Hochschule für Bildende Künste (State Academy of Fine Arts) in Frankfurt am Main under Prof. Thomas Bayrle, Martin Kippenberger and Prof. Ludger Gerdes. He completed his studies in 1994 as a master student of Prof. Thomas Bayrle. Prior to this, he studied painting at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (Technische Hochschule Köln) under Prof. Franz Dank from 1986 to 1988. From 1991 to 1992 he attended the Cooper Union School of Art, New York City in the classes of Prof. Hans Haacke (sculpture) and Prof. Robert Breer (film).

Work

After his studies at the Städelschule and a subsequent stay at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York, Thomas Nolden developed in the mid-1990s large-size paintings in hermetically closed spaces reminiscent of tree fragments and lightning. He was particularly interested in the topic of lightning as a metaphor for the awe at the moment of perception. In this context, the writer Angelica Horn refers in a text about Thomas Nolden's paintings to a quote from Adorno: “The closest to a work of art is the apparition in the sky.” (Theodor W. Adorno, “Aesthetic Theory” quoted in “Tag des Bildes - Zur Malerei von Thomas Nolden”, Angelica Horn, 2008). Parallel to this, Nolden created nature studies “en plein air”, figure and portrait studies, sheep and landscapes.

Since 2012, the visualization of the work process itself has also become an important topic for Nolden. This led to the publication of the Leporello “Ein Bild sind viele Bilder” / “One Painting Is Many Paintings”, DISTANZ Verlag Berlin, 2020, German/English, with accompanying texts by Wibke von Bonin and Wolfgang Ullrich. In this documentation, he reveals the development stages of two large-format paintings as a process of permanent questioning and reformulation. In an interview with cultural historian Wibke von Bonin, published in the book, Thomas Nolden states:

“The painting that I create must withstand the abundance of images we have in mind. This inevitably involves engaging with many paintings. Along with the very first activity on the canvas, each stroke draws us into the history of painting. Every figurative representation seems to have a superior image in art history, which it relates to, is in dialogue with, and against which it must assert itself.” (Wibke von Bonin, cultural historian: “A Plea for Figuration – A conversation with Thomas Nolden” published in “Ein Bild sind viele Bilder” / “One Painting Is Many Paintings”, 2020, p. 19 ??? Check )[5]

Reception

“Thomas Nolden (...) shows what is otherwise not shown, namely the long metamorphoses that a painting may undergo until the artist acknowledges it as completed. (...) The way in which Thomas Nolden discloses his paintings will then be appreciated as a practice that was ahead of its time and sensitive toward the great transformation that had just begun in relation to paintings.” (Wolfgang Ullrich, art historian: “Image Processes. Thomas Nolden and the Future of Paintings” published in “Ein Bild sind viele Bilder” / “One Painting Is Many Paintings” 2020, p.  ??? Check )[x]

“While his small canvases, mostly created in front of nature, appear almost monochrome, the current landscapes in large format not only appear incomparably closer to the subject, they also radiate in a seductive blaze of color (...) in front of Nolden's landscapes you feel as if you were on drugs. And yet you know you are wide awake.” (Christoph Schütte, publicist in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on July 25, 2014, “Wahlverwandtschaften im Traum und im Wachen” review of the exhibition by Thomas Nolden and Nicole van den Plas at Galerie Hübner + Hübner, Frankfurt am Main)

“Thomas Nolden's painting is imbued with a great intensity and seriousness in the examination of color, material and pictorial conception. Thomas Nolden provokes a field of tension between the painter and his material - he moves “into” the illusionary space of the canvas - into a condensed situation in which he can become material and vice versa. No collages - no secured tricks - painful old-fashioned risk, in which everything can constantly fail - or where a situation is created that aims - and then succeeds through the congruence of material and painter in the sense of Lacan: “In what we see, there is always a point from which the picture itself looks at us - a point in which we ourselves are already inscribed in the picture.” (Prof. Thomas Bayrle, artist, 2007)

“Not least show  Thomas Nolden's “Flusslandschaften” (River Landscapes) where painting, which has been declared dead at least once every decade, still draws not only its justification, but also its vigor… This becomes concrete in the direct, physical confrontation with the object, in the indissoluble synthesis, the emergent interplay of eye, hand, psyche, tools and materials and the outside world - so intense, so immediate and so interwoven with everything that the subject itself is, and precisely for this reason cannot be achieved in this way with any technical medium. (...) Thus these works are about how contemporary painting can respond to the pixelation of the environment with its genuine means...” (Herbert M. Hurka , publicist; introduction to Thomas Nolden's “Flusslandschaften”[8], Kunstverein Schallstadt, 2018)

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

• 2023 “Vertiefung”[9] Kulturhalle University City of Tübingen
• 2022 “Color as a fact” Strzelski Gallery, Stuttgart
• 2021 “One picture is many pictures - play of light” Kunsthaus Rhenania, Cologne
• 2020 “One picture is many pictures” Galerie Hübner + Hübner, Frankfurt am Main
• 2018 “River landscapes” Kunstverein Schallstadt
• 2017 “Breaking open” Strzelski Gallery, Stuttgart
• 2016 “Let There Be Light” Gallery in St. Sophia Cathedral, Kiev, Ukraine
• 2015 “Kawasaki Bar” Museo Marino Marini, Pistoia, Italy
• 2014 “Ursprung” Gallery Hübner + Hübner, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
• 2013 “Figures on the Dnieper” Kremenchuk Municipal Gallery, Ukraine
• 2012 “Double Summer” Gallery Hübner + Hübner, Frankfurt am Main
• 2012 “Karin Trenkel / Thomas Nolden” Gallery Hommes, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• 2009 “Serious Painting” Kunstverein Familie Montez, Frankfurt am Main
• 2003 “Sheep” Braith Mali Museum, Biberach
• 2002 “Branches” Biberach Art Association
• 2002 “Raum im Bild” Artists' Association Tübingen, Tübingen
• 2001 “Style” Forum in the Dominican Monastery, Frankfurt am Main
• 1999 “Branches” IG-Metal Gallery, Frankfurt am Main
• 1998 “Ast” Goop Gallery, Frankfurt am Main
• 1996 “3 Bäume” Fruchtig Gallery, Frankfurt am Main

Group exhibitions

• 2024 “Friends - Друзі” German-Ukrainian artist couples Kunstforum Fränkisches Seenland
• 2023 “Friends - Друзі” German-Ukrainian artist couples: Theaterfoyer, Theater Lindenhof Foundation
• 2022 “Friends - Друзі” German-Ukrainian artist couples Art in the Bonifatius Tower, Röthenbach an der Pegnitz 2024
• 2019 “Future ”Gallery Hübner and Hübner, Frankfurt am Main
• 2017 “Artgenossen Das Tier und wir” Gallery Die Fähre, Bad Saulgau
• 2017 “Frankfurt” Gallery Hübner + Hübner, Frankfurt am Main
• 2015 “Rien ne va plus” South German Art Association
• 2015 “Artists in love & Affaire de coeur” Gallery of the HBK Saar, Saarbrücken
• 2014 “Heimat” Gallery Hübner + Hübner, Frankfurt am Main
• 2014 “Sailors in love & laughing artists” Havenmuseum, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• 2013 “Selective Blindness” Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin-Weißensee School of Art
• 2013 “Artists in love” Süddeutscher Kunstverein
• 2013 “Artists of the gallery” Galerie Hübner + Hübner, Frankfurt am Main
• 2012 “Stroke by stroke” Strzelski Gallery, Stuttgart
• 2011 “we art” Strzelski Gallery, Stuttgart
• 2011 “Abstraction” Exhibition hall 1A, Frankfurt am Main
• 2011 “second show” Strzelski Gallery, Stuttgart
• 2009 “Thinking like the forest” Syltquelle Foundation, Sylt
• 2009 “My generation” Kunstverein Familie Montez, Frankfurt am Main
• 2008 “Portraits” Washington Street Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
• 2004 “Sheep” Exhibition Hall 1A, Frankfurt am Main
• 2000 “Meisterschüler” Kunstverein Hirschberg, curated by Christa Näher
• 1997 “Amilie” Bad Ems / Catalog 1994 Kunstverein Kronach
• 1993 “Painting 2000” Modernamuseet Malmö, Sweden

Publications

• 2020 One picture is many pictures Thomas Nolden / Wibke von Bonin / Wolfgang Ullrich, Distanz Verlag Berlin ISBN 978-3-95476-308-5
• 2010 Landscape with sheep Thomas Nolden with texts by Gerhard Theewen, Salon Verlag Cologne, ISBN 9783897703735 2009
• 2008 Seeing Faces Thomas Nolden / Barbara Wild, Salon Verlag Cologne ISBN9783897703056
• 2004 Sheep Thomas Nolden, Salon Verlag Cologne ISBN 3897702339

Video

Film portrait about Thomas Nolden “Inside the Painting” (HDV, Germany 2024, 17 min.) by Thomas Josef Roth, DokHaus Berlin

Weblinks

• Thomas Nolden Website
• Biography of Thomas Nolden on the website of Strzelski Gallery, Stuttgart
• Short biography and list of exhibitions on the website of Galerie Hübner+Hübner, Frankfurt am Main
• Thomas Nolden page at the Freie Kunstakademie, Frankfurt am Main
• Literature by and about Thomas Nolden in the catalog of the German National Library
• Objects by Thomas Nolden in the Central Archive of the International Art Trade
• Commons (add)