It is about developments in the context of their time, counted in seven-year cycles, and about the other, the more liberal view that art can dare to take.
This is the beginning of a project. In search of something meaningful, lasting, systemic, something we are interested in, something that enriches us, that we seek, that accompanies us, that inspires us.
» We want to work with a young person, allow scope in seven-year cycles. The artist's annual work can be a painting, an object, a graphic, a photograph, a collage, a sculpture, whatever. It is intended to create a condensation and reflection, a snapshot of the current social, aesthetic contextuality, to capture this brief glimpse. This referentiality is the foundation of our work. We dedicate this artwork to you as our New Year's greeting. «Nils Krause
The project began in 2010 with an invitation to the Stuttgart-based photographer and artist Judith Brucklacher to design the New Year’s greeting for our office for a period of seven years. This has resulted in a varied series using different presentation techniques, which shows snapshots of the current social and aesthetic context at the time. It is an accompanying sensory documentation, a determination of place and time for us rather than about us.
»… es grünt so grün«, 2009, painted photograph, 1 of 7, Judith Brucklacher
»untitled«, 2010, photograph, 2 of 7, Judith Brucklacher
»frucht«, 2011, photograph, 3 of 7, Judith Brucklacher
»untitled«, 2012, photograph, 4 of 7, Judith Brucklacher
»untitled«, 2013, photograph, digitally edited, 5 of 7, Judith Brucklacher
»untitled«, 2014, photograph, digitally edited, 6 of 7, Judith Brucklacher
»untitled«, 2015, photograph, digitally edited, 7 of 7, Judith Brucklacher
From 2017 to 2023, the series was continued for another seven years by Italian painter Renato Settembre, a graduate of the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design. He has been living and working in Brussels since 2019.
»untitled«, 2016, oil on canvas, 1 of 7, 100 x 90 cm, Renato Settembre
»fremd gehen«, 2017, oil, acrylic paint, pencil and permanent marker on cotton cloth, 2 of 7, 200 x 160 cm, Renato Settembre
»untitled«, 2018, oil on tracing paper, 3 of 7, 297 x 210 mm, Renato Settembre
»summary«, 2019, oil on canvas, 4 of 7, 100 x 60 cm, Renato Settembre
»I am thinking of the tableware on the plane: blunt and shorter, because in there every centimetre has a higher market value. Or: the failure when trying to fit a drill back into the negative form in its case. Dealing with such a system of ordering without knowing it well can lead to frustration, but also to sudden progress. In a similar way, the work titled summary fits together different things in a limited space.« R.S.
» For a long time I believed, I did not know or did not want to know what painting is. In many of my paintings you can find abstract motives and part of figures. Draft faces but also bodies and objects. It could be, that these forms tell you some kind of stories. They would be not interesting stories. I would like to draw an entire body, but a foot can be enough. I do not know if these interruptions and changes of mind have something to do with the need to be certain and determined in what I am doing. I do not feel in the best place to judge my own work – I like it a bit too much. Perhaps that is, because the criteria with which I judge it are so different from the ones I use when I am making. And those criteria do not last very long. «Renato Settembre, 2017
»untitled«, 2020, pencil on paper, 5 of 7, 420 x 297 mm, Renato Settembre
»untitled«, 2021, acrylic paint, oil and graphite on cotton cloth, 6 of 7, 80 x 110 cm, Renato Settembre
“untitled”, 2022, acrylic, oil paint, charcoal and graphite on canvas, 7 of 7, 120 x 100 cm, Renato Settembre
We sincerely thank Renato Settembre for the enriching collaboration and his accompaniment during an intense time!
We started a new collaboration in the autumn of 2023 and are looking forward to seven creative years with artist Paula Stockmeier. Paula is a student at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design (ABK Stuttgart) in the class of Professor Thomas Bechinger.
New Year’s cards | Concept and Design l Wolf-Dieter Gericke
