Bernd Ribbeck: Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse, Zurich

Bernd Ribbeck is influenced by artists operating at the fringes of art history or whose works are orientated at spiritual ideas, such as Hilma Af Klint (1882 – 1944, Swedish painter, spiritualist, theosophist and anthroposophist) and Emma Kunz (1892 – 1963, Swiss alternative practicioner and artist). Ribbeck is also interested in visionary thinkers who are sometimes detached from the world. Amongst these are architects of modern church buildings such as German Hans Scharoun (1893-1972), one of the key representatives of Organic Architecture. He designs peculiarly shaped buildings, which fuse modernist-rationalist ideas and clerical pretensions.

 

Inspired by these artists and by exerting self-restraint as regards the format of his works, as well as in the choice of their shapes, Bernd Ribbeck aims to develop his own style. In his artistic language, the visionary represents the guideline. It is not primarily designed for application, but rather seeks to let other worlds proliferate. It is his enthusiasm and not the purpose of a quotation that creates images, which open up an epic space despite their abstraction.  However, no narrative is being presented. The pictures act like statues alongside the story of a film. Bernd Ribbeck opens up a fictional world without explanations, creates icons without religions or, quoting Malewitsch: „naked icons of my era."