Philip von Mentzingen - New Works -

The mastering of pictorial techniques within the field of painting does not necessarily imply academism. This is true in the works of Philip von Mentzingen, who, despite being a young painter exhibits a strong maturity and freedom with the medium.

Through a straight placement of the depicted motives, always central in the composition, the artist creates immediacy in his painting, which is matched only by the resolute and unrestrained execution of the works. We can say that the paintings function both as attracting and worrying mental maps. They unfold an energy field that is mostly based on the resulting tension between the represented objects, such as trailers, smashed TV’s, empty swimming pools or moon landings, and the mysterious and almost autonomous environment that encompass them.

We will find contradicting aspects of his style that reveal to us autonomy and a certain disregard of classical composition. Smooth, long, brushstrokes coupled with shorter, choppier ones that overlap very subtly as well as unexpected color mutations suggest at the beginning a hyper realistic mannerism. But later our senses are confronted with an impossible psychological state whose origin is far beyond the sheer aesthetic statement.

In the work Evon, the represented object becomes a portrait of a young lady. It is here where the viewer can begin a conceptual approach towards the artist’s entire pictorial machinery. It is our own identity that is in question.