Jutta Haeckel works are studies in ambiguity. Apparently abstract, they are actually representational. Seemingly gestural, they are in fact, quite controlled. And, most remarkably, they’re made by painting from both the back and front of the canvas. For her, these explorations in duality are a reflection of the technological, scientific, social and cultural fluidity of our time.
Painted on jute—the strong, coarse, natural fiber that burlap is made of — Haeckel utilizes a series of extremely unorthodox techniques to undermine the physical and conceptual precepts of painting. Rather than depicting a form, Haeckel paints the negative space around the form, confounding foreground and background as well as the meaning of “subject.” In addition to this already eccentric process, she applies pigments to the “backside” of the painting, then pushes paint through small gaps in the fabric—extruding it onto the “front”—further subverting the two-dimensional space of traditional painting.
Jutta Haeckel was born in Hannover, Germany in 1972. She studied at Hochschule für Künste, Bremen, under the tutelage of Karin Kneffel, and at Goldsmiths College in London. She has exhibited widely in Germany, including recent solo exhibitions at Kunstverein Leverkusen, Kunstverein Recklinghausen and Schloss Detmold.