The new works on view display a confrontational attitude that has always been characteristic of Krystufek’s work. Directly or indirectly they touch upon current political, (art) historical, or personal topics from an emancipatory point of view. In the large painting Features (2019) a man is literally kicking the viewer in the face. He is clad in jeans and black sweater, and wearing a bear mask and a US police cap.
In the background, surrounding the contours of a painting, one reads fragments of a morbid poem by Gottfried Benn directly addressing gallery visitors: „can you see on the paintings in the galleries bent backs, grey mouths who move like bodies through the things…..can you see how these people paid for their lives?…“. The painting is based on a photo session that Krytufek did at the gallery some months ago with the detective Martin Ulm.
Croy Nielsen
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