Rectangles and squares
Claudia Beelitz, art historian, Berlin, 2010
Translation: Frank Steven Weir

Rectangles and squares, stripes and grid-like structures, lines and monochrome color fields dominate in the paintings of Christine Falk. Nevertheless, this Berlin artist is neither interested in theoretical reflections on concrete art nor in metaphysical justifications of abstraction. None of her pictures dwell in the abstract. Recognizable, however, are houses, windows, roofs, fences, chairs, landing stages, meadows and various allusions to city and landscape areas presented in geometrically abstract forms. Her pictures rarely show figures, and Christine Falk’s paintings never get lost in the narrative, but she rather concentrates on strictly formal reduction.

For Christine Falk, the constructedness of the world is an important given, which she neither questions nor seeks to expose. This constructedness is formally reflected in basic geometrical constants: in horizontal as well as vertical lines, which are occasionally interrupted by diagonal or angular lines. Like formal filters or eyeglasses, these geometrical constants determine her vision. Over the course of numerous journeys, Christine Falk has photographed venues that to her have an atmospheric vibrancy as they astonish her, seem strange to her and pique her curiosity. This geometrically-oriented perspective is already clear in many of her photographs: for example, when Christine Falk focuses her interest on houses nested into one another in Tibet or the grid of a store-front facade in the Thai city of Ratchaburi. A distinct interest in their light and colour, which cannot be found in Europe, becomes apparent in the context of this reduction.

Back in Berlin, Christine Falk transforms her travel impressions into paintings. She selects photographs and reframes them. Repeatedly reducing the photographic material, she employs classical composition principles, such as the “golden ratio” or symmetry – composition principles that are intended to create clarity and harmony. Using a rigorous concept, she connects the single elements in the framework of her pictures. This results in two-dimensional as well as expansive compositions, some of which focus on single themes while others reflect on layered and adjacent geometrical forms and colour fields. Thereby, Christine Falk explores the broad spectrum of painting: strictly limited monochrome sections with smooth layers of color are thwarted by painterly resolved passages and color gradients, harmonising and disharmonious contrasts create tension.

However, to describe Christine Falk's work as a transformation of her travel impressions into paintings would not give us a complete picture because the visual impressions from abroad have fundamentally impacted her perception and effected her observation of places at home. This can be seen in works such as the Summer in Kassel and the series Berlin Weissensee. The foreign and the personal, the unusual color and light conditions abroad (unknown in the European context) and the European perspective itself, amalgamate in the works of Christine Falk, thus creating exciting paintings aiming at visual harmonization. Neither the hidden nor the mysterious beyond the visual fascinate Christine Falk, but the visible itself. From her visual findings she condenses, by reducing them formally, those details that are important to her: light and color. She says that it is the simple and not the extravagant that is crucial to her. The eye should relax seeing the clarity of the work. Christine Falk´s artistic reflection, which is derived from her retinally as well as mentally registered and photographically stored pictures, proves to be a research in the context of the contemplative.



Things
Dörte Lammel, art historian and galerist, Berlin, 2002
Translation: Frank Steven Weir

Christine Falk’s picture language is closely connected to reality. Her travels in Asia , Africa , Europe , but also in the environs of Berlin provide the inspiration for her serial motifs dealing with trees and park benches. Ch. Falk is deeply impressed by optical stimuli around her and translates these impressions in an intensive way into her ideas that she conceives for her visual image. Consistently , this process is about becoming aware of and marveling at everyday sensations that people often overlook. She tests very carefully the possebilities of formal organisation of surface areas , the arrangement of forms and the expression of color.

However , in the trinity of form , content and color , the latter receives the most attention. Clear contours and dynamic , contrast-rich surfaces are importend for a strict adherence to form which should nevertheless not diverge into the pure realm of abstraction , but maintain the values associated with the art of painting. (For example , the casual arrangement of stylized fruit on a partially visible platter can provide an interesting , sharp contrast to a geometrically structured background.)

A reduction of form , factual clarity , precision and concentration merge in the representation of the object to produce simplicity of artistic symbolism. Individual forms are thereby featured , exhibited or are transformed into a complementary contextual ornamentation for the subject of the picture. Viewing into and through objects , juxtaposing and overlapping different items , and expanding form details all create a wealth of associations in the mind’s eye. Ornamental forms are developed from vegetal and architectural motives.

The nuance-richness of her color tones creates atmosphere. Christine Falk is not a starry-eyed romantic and her art is not frivolous. Her artistic expression is objective , exact and economical. By reducing the content of her forms to the bare minimum the observer is made aware of the intrinsic essence of the object.