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Works on skin ‐ FLIGHT 3 - THE ARTWORKS

René Wirths

René Wirths

COME / GONE

Price is exclusive of VAT and shipping. The contribution to the artists' social security fund (KSK) of 2.5% of the net price is also part of the gross price.

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Context

Life begins with me and ends with me" (Karl Lagerfeld).
The title COME / GONE refers directly to the two terms hidden in the motif. This motif comes from a 50 x 100 cm oil painting from the Scripture Paintings series, which I began in 2024 and in which my interests in immediate image-finding processes and conceptual (life) philosophical reflection merge. The interweaving of two overlapping concepts into a quasi-abstract pattern avoids a clear interpretation in two ways: it is a mélange of word and image in which neither gains the upper hand. And so it is initially up to the viewer or reader to associate the existing formal language and the two concepts with the meaning and purpose of a tattoo.
I chose the COME / GONE motif for WOS on the one hand because of these semantic-philosophical interpretation options, and on the other hand because it has aesthetic references to graffiti and street art, thus playfully addressing the historical origins of tattoos in certain social classes from which I myself come—that of the street.

About René Wirths

René Wirths, born in 1967 in Waldbröl, Germany, is a Berlin-based painter known for his meticulous and contemplative approach to still life. He studied philosophy and political science at Freie Universität Berlin before pursuing fine arts at Berlin University of the Arts between 1992 and 1998, where he was mentored by Wolfgang Petrick. Fascinated by questions of observation, perception and representation, René Wirths produces carefully framed meticulous paintings of mundane objects on a unicolored background, forcing the viewer into a head-on physical and metaphysical experience. In the last years he started to modify his processes, so the paintings became more and more independent and playful conglomerates of colors and forms, which made his former dogma, not to use other pictures or photographic aids uncompelling. Currently he is working on three pictures groups: object paintings, scripture paintings and interpretations of historical painting icons from the renaissance to the present day, which he calls painting paintings.
His work has been exhibited internationally in Berlin, Paris, Zurich, Seoul and more, and is celebrated for its technical mastery and meditative depth.

Photo René Wirths: Dale Grant

Fun fact

Instructions

Freedom means having to decide for yourself.

  • Color

    Black/Grey, all dark shades

  • Position

    anywhere

  • Scalable

    yes