what do you think i'd see if i could walk away from me

lines like these words written by lou reed, removed from their original context, take on an autonomous and incisive meaning when transplanted into the paintings of edith urban. her writing is delicate but determined, and the words seem to be notes taken by the artist during the creative process, but in fact they are crucial commentaries that determine the character of each individual painting on various levels. each fragment of text suggests a specific atmosphere, almost always with an underlying melancholy, but at the same time it can also be tinged with intimacy, as in the as in the words of the velvet underground (who loves the sun, who cares that it is shining, who cares what it does – since you broke my heart), imbued with a sensitive and essential poetry like the verses by luigi trucillo (in great strides above me, the water bounds across the centuries) or drammatic like the words of georg büchner in woyzeck, heinrich heine/einar schleef. 

these fragments are artistic expressions written in very personal styles, and yet they all relate to the collectivity, they can be applied to anyone and open up spaces for existential reflection, calling the self into question and suggesting a search for the limits of individual identity. 

these fragments drawn from such varied sources are also in a sense the effect of chance situations and the artist’s everyday engagement with the cultural environment that surrounds her. a few years ago, edith urban moved from germany to rome, where her lively interaction with artists of other disciplines has intensified. so for some time, her paintings have also contained verses taken from works by italian writers, such as the poetry of the neapolitan writer luigi trucillo.

for the exhibition at the centro luigi di sarro, the artist wanted to conduct a new experiment: as an avid listener to contemporary music, she decided to pair this enthusiasm with her painting. the piece for two violins by the roman composer lucio gregoretti was the direct result of his meeting with edith urban, and was created as a site specific piece for this exhibition, in which the violinists move freely through the space amongst the works. like edith urban, gregoretti is someone for whom words often form an integral part of his compositions, given his inclination towards musical theatre, melologues and soundtracks for cinema and theatre. as a member of the generation that trained at the twilight of the avant-garde era, his music stands out for its very personal style (with is combination of musical languages with extremely disparate origins), often imbued with a subtle irony and a sense of paradox, which are also elements present in edith urban’s paintings. gregoretti’s interest in other forms of expression beside music has often emerged in his compositions in the shape of direct references to the works of visual artists, such as kandinsky in his piece gelbe begleitung, ilya kabakov in looking up and the score unlimited quartet written for a work by beatrice pediconi. 

in this instance, with the dialogue between the two violins, lucio gregoretti reflects the paradoxical structure of edith urban’s paintings: the artist’s precise, subtle, but also enigmatic, animated and lively calligraphy suggests fluctuating thoughts and contrasts with the absolute stillness conveyed by the thick layers of superimposed colour, with their intense, brilliant quality resulting from the translucence of the acrylic, and their clear and compelling geometry. whilst on the one hand, on the syntactic level, the texts comment upon and determine the atmosphere of the work, on the other hand, they themselves are pictorial gestures equivalent to the fields of colour in structuring the pictorial space. so the artist is not so much guided by the need to supply a verbal commentary on an abstract painting, in the sense of introducing a narrative intended to compensate for the lack of a represented object, as by the need to compose the essence of the painting simultaneously through its written and painted elements. 

abstraction and figuration are obsolete concepts. certainly, with her espousal of existential themes and the discovery of the limits of the individual, edith urban clearly forms part of the german romantic tradition of caspar david friedrich, which she reworks in an extremely subtle way, not least in formal terms, for example in the use of the golden ratio that can often be detected in the organisation of her large-format works. the pictorial gesture represented by the integration of the artist’s own handwriting into the painting, on the other hand, recalls the method of anselm kiefer, as do the concrete references to germany history, which are also reflected in kiefer’s work in the use of a wide variety of materials, and represent an important source of inspiration for edith urban, who develops them in an entirely unique and personal way that cannot be linked to any school or movement. such formal and spiritual independence is probably due to the fact that edith urban has not followed the traditional artistic career. only after completing studies in economics, philosophy and german philology did she venture into art, and began her career as a painter autonomously, finding her space within the german art world through various solo and collective exhibitions. later on, she studied under hermann nitsch, who held a professorship in “interdisciplinary art” at the famous “städelschule”, the academy of fine arts in frankfurt. so the total openness to the most diverse approaches and the integration of all forms of art, which mark out hermann nitsch’s performances as gesamtkunstwerke, are the aspects that have exerted a powerful influence on edith urban.

in her latest works, which were created for the exhibition at the centro luigi di sarro, her palette has become lighter, and the layers of countless pigments are only visible upon very careful inspection. her style is becoming ever more refined, with the presence of enigmatic signs and fragments of texts such as the words of title, which we all must appropriate and interpret in an entirely individual manner.

tanja lelgemann