Collection 1980s–Present

Kerstin Brätsch. Blocked Radiant (for Ioana). 2011

Oil on paper with frame, 110 x 72" (279.4 x 182.9 cm). Fund for the Twenty-First Century. © 20YY Kerstin Brätsch

Artist, Kerstin Brätsch: Hi, I’m Kerstin Brätsch.

I use digitality as a way of perceiving my existence in the world. For example, I use the brushstroke as an abstract sample, the simplest element in the construction of a painterly unit. So, enlarged as an autonomous motif, the brushstroke becomes an image of itself. Close-up, the motif is diluted again into physical, messy abstraction, revealing smudges or fingerprints and paint drips. So it turns from abstract entity towards almost a figurative motif and back again. If you go further, you could say that's basically a questioning of painting or authorship or an investigation of the digital as an image machine, or an investigation of the digital as a condition of abstraction.