Brief Review ‣ Creator(s): Susannah Martin. Nationality: American. Base: Berlin, Germany. Main skill(s): fine art; painting; print. ★ Main thematic(s) and/or subject(s) in this/these work(s): naturism; paradise; utopia; and purity. Main style(s) and/or art reference(s) applied: Classicism, Figurative Art, Fine Art, Impressionism, Naturalism, Nature Art, Neo-Figurative Art, Neoclassicism, Portraiture, Realism, Realistic Art, Romanticism. Main medium(s): oil on linen; print. ★ More info: Website Facebook Instagram Twitter H/T: Beinart Gallery
Realistic and at the same time peaceful – just ‘natural’ – is how Susannah Martin’s works of art could be described, for in spite of a harmonious idyll, the artist in no way hints at that paradise worth striving for. She shows no utopian wishful thinking, but rather creative possibilities. In an artistic way she concretizes a discourse which elucidates man’s dilemma by consistently concealing this. ‘Bathing’ men, women and children, as in the works ‘The River’ or ‘C-section’ , for example, should be something so natural, something so normal, almost banal even, yet still ‘beautiful’ as well, so that it would in principle be pointless to have to take as a central theme this bathing as a natural, an obvious leisure time activity. This is also the discursive crux, for that which is natural and obvious speaks for itself and needs no artistic involvement. When the artist, with good reason, hints at an awkward state of affairs, an imbalance between nature and corporeality, between man and his environment, this is the artistic impulse, which would be unnecessary if circumstances were in balance.
Susannah Martin
Curated by Leandro Lima
