PAINTING AS AN ENHANCEMENT OF SPATIAL EXPERIENCE

By Jürgen Großmann, Member of the board Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur

My encounters with Susan Swartz have now spanned over two decades. And they have always been a joy – hopefully as much for her as for me and my family. As engineer and entrepreneur, similar to but not as successful as Susan’s husband Jim Swartz, I have to be forever curious by nature, so analog all that is new and innovative in the field of the visual arts piques my interest.

Susan pictured with Jürgen Großmann at the opening of Three Dimensions in Berlin, 2021.

Susan Swartz‘s beloved title “A Personal Path” from 2014 “already shows that this art – in terms of abstraction – is not a fervent visual expression born of the moment. Rather, each work is integrated within an autobiography reflected in a painterly manner” as Dieter Ronte expressed in his recent text. Swartz has not subordinated herself to so-called abstract art, which privileges the picture before the painter ́s persona, she in the course of quite a few conversations and exhibitions time and time again emphasized biographical references. And what a life she leads, full of peaks, but also of troughs caused by illness.

Not only for art historians it is of great interest to be among the first to articulate a linguistic grammar for an artist ́s innovative pictorial universe. We need to remain aware that such interpretive reflections do not intend to limit, bracket or brace the oeuvre. Instead, in Susan’s case, are shaped by a great openness. They can be approached in a wide variety of spaces, be it in museum halls in Buda-pest or Koblenz, but they are just as able to function as a dialogue in the transept of a church, such as, in 2014, in the Collegiate Church in Salzburg, whose interior is permeated by the iconographic precepts of the Catholic Church. Not to forget Beijing, where the encounter of Susan’s art with the eastern culture added more spice.

What Susan Swartz means to us - and this includes her latest works - is the relationship between painterly abstraction and nature. Which is why the catalog text for Koblenz (Museum Ludwig, 2015, p.59) written by Professor Dieter Ronte begins with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s mysterious insight: “The subject-matter is visible to everyone, content is only discovered by him who has something to contribute, and form is a mystery to most.”

Despite its autobiographical dimension, Susan Swartz’s artwork does indeed, with great candor and ambivalence, interact with the viewer. In 1962, Umberto Eco introduced the concept of opera aperta – the open artwork – into the discussion. This phenomenon pertains especially for an abstract art, which need not adhere to any iconographic rules, but is vibrantly enhanced by the artist ́s persona. The diverse personal life each viewer brings to the appreciation of a work of art, provides for the multitude of experience such view brings.

Eminently, given in the nature of each picture, it is freedom of art, and parallel the freedom of each individual viewer. This means that the paintings are within themselves rich and manifold. They counter the currently popular “definition of world” (Thomas Bauer, Stuttgart, 2018). This wide spread new art simply sheds such freedoms – which Susan Swartz holds so dear and progresses beyond all ambiguities – contemporary art is evolving, certainly since the last iteration of documenta in Kassel, into an art serving merely as visual proof for the rightness of a socio-cultural thesis – be it climate change or racial and sexual discrimination, or other political messages.

There is pleasure to be found in observing how over the course of the last years, the art of Susan Swartz has become even more unbound, developing from within to radiate greater freedom. Her art does not even attempt to teach or indoctrinate us. It is not platform for a political manifest.

I had the privilege to experience in the amicable relationship with Susan Swartz, who as host and artist continually demonstrates that it is the viewer and visitor who is likewise respected. This artist was permanently ready to join the thought process, to offer suggestions and to express her trust. She is very confident about her art, thus not needing to justify it for intellectual or strategic reasons.

The show we are opening today came into being through the close cooperation with the Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur (Foundation for Art and Culture), of which I have the honor to be a board member. The formidable powers this foundation possesses, of persuasion, along with their international contacts, have made many museum colleagues discover the honesty, truthfulness and quality of the artist’s work. Today we are here not talking about a young artist still searching for her place within the international scene, but of a mature oeuvre stemming from decades of personal commitment and deserving international attention.

This kind of international cooperation which led to intercontinental exhibitions of Susan’s art is often difficult. It can only be successfully affected through intensive talks and flexibility with leading art people across the globe. The “Stiftung”, the above mentioned foundation, furthermore, is able to act more freely and with less constraints than a public museum. Unforgettable for me is seeing a street-car in Budapest as I was in the city, while the exhibition was installed. We had gone outside and then recognized the large lettering of the show’s advertisement.

I feel the same pleasure seeing the latest pictures of the artist today and understanding how the international exhibition activities have inspired and encouraged. Susan Swartz tries out different approaches – a cross-fertilization, indeed. This cooperation, spanning over three continents, is for both sides gratifying as well as beneficial – a rare thing indeed in the art scene. And also profitable for both sides, especially for the artist who was relatively unknown in Europe and now is excited to present catalogs with texts by different authors. Through these efforts her work has garnered unprecedented public attention.

Both studios Susan uses, the summer studio on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and the winter studio in Park City, rather Deer Valley, Utah, express the artist’s bond with the natural environment. Unlike most other contemporary artists, Susan Swartz does not center her work and life in the social, economic and cultural hub of a metropolis, but rather chose the quietude of a landscape harboring a plenitude of inspiration. To experience first-hand the inner connection between the artist and nature has greatly expanded my own awareness.

It is a pleasure to follow all the information coming out of the studio of Susan Swartz. She is expanding the scope of her thinking and experimenting with new techniques, even entering three dimensional expression, with a relief. Through the collaboration, the artist has ventured into an expanded sense of painting, into new experiences and cultural activities through her studio in Park City. I have the privilege to own two of her earlier works, inspired by the light trees of the Utah Rocky Mountains, plus a more recent price, in pastel colors. All three continue to inspire me, whenever I look at them.

It does happen in the visual arts that qualities and potential remain undiscovered because the artist is shy, or because the artist is not only painter but also mother and educator and because circum-stances simply did not permit other choices. In the case of Susan Swartz, though, a successful narrative has been written.

We are happy Susan and her works are back in Germany.

All those involved should be proud of this.