uNseR maNN IN euRopa

dass man sich erarbeiten muss – gehört
einfach eine ordentliche Portion seiner
”
selbst bewusst sein“ dazu. In einem anderen
Gespräch hat Scully, der fast sein ganzes
künstlerisches leben hindurch an Hochschulen
Studenten unterrichtet hat, einen
seiner lehrinhalte als Vorbereitung für das
leben als Künstler denn auch so formuliert:
” Das erste, was ich ihnen beibringe: sie müssen
lernen, Zusammenhänge zu durchschau-
passenger Sky, 1999; oil on linen; 53 x 48.5" (134.6 x 123.2 cm); private Collection
en. Aktuelle Trends sind die ladenhüter
von morgen. Es geht darum, seine eigenen
möglichkeiten richtig einschätzen zu lernen
und ein Gefühl für den richtigen Zeitpunkt
zu entwickeln. Das heißt, man muss sein
Handwerk verstehen, die Kunstgeschichte
kennen und wissen, wo man im leben
stehen will. man muss das System begriffen
haben. Talent alleine ist nicht genug. Sehen
Sie sich frühe Arbeiten von van Gogh oder
To the cat, which is meowing: ” Yeah,
come on, you can be in the interview. You can
also say something about America and Turkey
and why it’s not good for Europe. Come on in.“
Anyhow, so I am very committed to this
ideal, hence my relationship with Germany. So
then it’s a question of ” Where in Germany?“.
And this is probably one of the most beautiful
places you can live on God’s earth. And as a
counterweight to this, if I want someone to
upset me, insult me, put pressure on me, make
me uncomfortable, I can go to New York. I can
have that any minute.
? It sounds a little bit like you
don’t like the americans.
! I wouldn’t say ” I don’t like them“. I like
them. But I think that Europe is very important.
It’s the seat of civilisation. It is, where democracy
was invented. It’s where our philosophical
matrix was invented.
Almost exclusively in Germany. And I
am connected to all this.
So, I like America, and there are many
things about it, I like, but I think that the rumination
and the philosophical pondering and
reflection of Europe is very important to every
thing. To the survival of the world. To the mediating
between hard positions. It’s all in Europe.
And of course we paid for it with a lot
of wars. And now we understand something,
that we didn’t understand before. And I would
say that we in Europe are evolved in some way.
It’s not that I don’t like America. I do. But I think
Europe is crucially important.
? and china and India?
! I can’t take that on. It’s not in my...
world. I think China is like America in the
nineteenth century. That’s the most I can say
about it.
? you just used the word ” matrix“.
Is it the right expression for the composition
of your pictures too? Is that a kind of
matrix ?
! Yeah, it’s a kind of matrix.
It’s a kind of grid.
It’s not a grid - it’s ” a kind of grid“!
There is a big distinction there.
That’s a handdrawn grid, therefore it’s not
actually a grid.
It’s an interpretation of a grid.
By hand.
Which is ” humanizing a grid“.
making the grid suitable for human consumption
– and interference.
? your first pieces of art where
completely different. especially the sort of
stripes you used. They had sharp borders
and they were plain in colour – perhaps
even spray painted? I don’t know.
! Yeah, I used a lot of ... devices in my
early painting. I was much more interested in
illusionism, in pictorial illusionism. And my
layering of different systems - superimposition
of systems to create a kind of chaos. So there
was still in the early work a kind of subversion
of the system. Now the subversion of the system
is different, because it’s actually in the application
of the paint, in the way the edges are made.
The way that the system, the geometry of the
world is somehow ... subverted and brought into
the realm of human feeling. That is what I am
really doing in my work. So, the way that the
colours are made is on the painting. You can’t
make them in another way. They are made by
painting.
? you mix it oN the painting ?
! ON the painting !
? so, are the layers of paint underneath
dry or wet ?
! It’s wet. So it’s influencing the top
colour. So, if – for example – I’m putting cream
on blue and orange I would get completely
different results. One would be a kind of pink
and the other would be a blue, light blue or grey.
So what’s underneath is influencing what’s on
top. You might say that’s a metaphor for life.
For the structure of the world. What’s underneath
is always influencing what’s on top. It has
tremendous power. It’s an underneath kind of
power. So, these power relationships are also
very important to me. Are very important in
my work. So you can feel this. You can feel the
tactile quality of the paintings, the emotion of a
human being making the painting. And – unlike
my early works – which were more diagrammatic
they were really the paintings of a younger