MATTHIAS LEUTRUM was born in Germany in 1966. After completing his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he moved to New York City. He has a studio in mid-town Manhattan and teaches at The Children’s Storefront, an independent school in Harlem. His work ranges across a broad thematic spectrum, but is unified by attention to form and emotional color contrasts.
Photo by Craig Harbison
Human Cannonball Paintings
In the spring of 2009 I was stopped in my tracks by a newspaper image of two human cannonballs suspended in mid-air. This seemingly contradictory spectacle of figures propelled into space while, at the same time, suspended within a frozen frame was extremely seductive.
Prior to this, I had very little traffic with the world of carnivals and fairs in which these human cannonball shows are traditionally staged. The connotations of an explosive, menacing and almost violent event, combined with a frolicsome circus atmosphere, merged to form a slew of potent visual possibilities
I asked myself: What is it that inspires performers to participate in an act that muddies the line between playfulness and genuine danger? What is it that compels others to bear witness?
Is there a way in which the act of spring boarding someone out of a cannon–creating the illusion of a rocketed piece of ammunition—serves as a metaphor for the act of making art?
Finally, is the passive surrender of the protagonists to this strange ritual an apt analogy for the way we might experience our own personal trajectories?
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“Matthias Leutrum serializes his daily life in still-lifes. One of the main characters of his recent paintings, a kitchen knife, materializes in the aerial view of a well-worn hardwood floor; for the next appearance, it insinuates itself into a classically-inflected memento mori with shadowy sculls and bright orange flashes of medicine bottles; finally, its blade disappears into a cheerfully banal jumble of pencil-colored containers, cups and vases of all sorts. Is the knife de-bladed, or is it cutting right through the excitement of exterior motives, pointing towards the interior?”
“Matthias Leutrum serialisiert seinen Alltag in Stilleben. Einer der Hauptcharaktere in seinen neuesten Bildern, ein Küchenmesser, wird auf einem aus der Vogelperspektive gesehenen, abgenutzten Holzboden sichtbar. Für die nächste Erscheinung schleicht es sich in ein klassisch anmutendes memento mori, mit schattenhaften Schädeln und grell orange leuchtenden Medizinflaschen, ein. Zu guter Letzt verschwindet die Messerschneide im heiteren und zwanglosen Durcheinander von mit Buntstift gezeichneten Gefäßen, Tassen und Behältnissen verschiedenster Art. Ist die Klinge des Messers entfernt worden oder schneidet es energisch und unbeirrt durch die Erregung äußerer Motive und ist nach innen gerichtet?”
- Sandra Skurvida, 2006