Gertrude Reum

Everything is in a state of flux"

01.12.2000 - 31.01.2001

They exude power and dynamic force – the impressive works of Gertrude Reum. She is both a painter and a modeller of objects at the same time – a metal sculptress one might say. So she is an artist – and one who selects her materials completely freely, depending on the task at hand. Born in 1926 in Saarbrücken and living and working today in Buchen, Gertrude Reum was discovered more than twenty years ago by Reinhold Würth, a patron of the arts from Künzelsau. The much-cited statement by Heraclitus of Ephesus, "Everything is in a state of flux", applies to Gertrude Reum's works to an especially high degree. Inexhaustible is the only word for her repertoire of new ideas and conceptions, which she realises with untiring zeal. This allows her to look back on the fruit of her very prolific work, which has always been accompanied by brisk exhibiting activities. The themes of her work, such as creation, the cosmos and the phenomena found within these, like time, light, space and motion all call for forms of creation that again and again have to be worked out and reconsidered anew.  Though representational associations always come to one – Reum's language of form is pared down to such an extent that her works are never depictable. Impressions of nature may be the premise, but in an artistic process they are transformed into a vision independent of the object. This is especially the case for her cellulose works created during the eighties, which extend out toward the viewer a surface jagged and split open inwardly, drawing, as it were, one's curiosity into work. At that point lifeless surfaces burst, tear open and gape to disclose assumable progressions or blue oceans. Her watercolours of ravaged, destroyed landscapes, "Horizons", present themselves as more reserved in nature but just as devoid of people. In her sets of works, "Verschlingen, Überschneidungen, Faltungen, Aufbrüche and Ströme", she illustrates energies. Especially her involved metal works made of steel, brass and aluminium reveal an astonishing force, the flow of which actually appears to be alive when one changes ones point of view. Snakes or wavy forms are found on Gertrude Reum's many metal works. They run through the objects on exhibit like bundled streaks of light criss-crossing one another. Through polishing, etching and baked enamelling, these twining paths are given a three-dimensional quality nearly equalling that of holograms. Six chrome nickel steel tubes each wriggle upwards both before the FabrikGalerie and in its entrance area. They interlock as "aspiring forces", reminiscent of natural forms and, depending on the viewer's standpoint and the light's changing angle of incidence, develop a fascinating life of their own. Especially in sunshine the sculpture shines like a light with its own source of energy. As with most of these objects, people are captivated by the cool aesthetic appeal of the material used. The artist admits that the kind of material is her greatest challenge. Superficial viewing, striding through hastily or quick glances will scarcely be worthwhile here. Only those who grapple with the individual works, who take time and establish contact with these objects, following their progression and their structure, will be able to follow Gertrude Reum's captivating mystical quest.

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