- Christiaan Tonnis
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Christiaan Tonnis 
Christiaan Tonnis, 2007Born 5 June 1956
FrankfurtNationality German Field Painting, Video Art Training Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach Movement Contemporary art Works Catwalk!, 2006 Christiaan Tonnis (born June 5, 1956, Saarbrücken, Germany) is a German symbolist/realist painter, draftsman, video artist and published author. He studied at the HfG Offenbach with Dieter Lincke and Herbert Heckmann(de), and lives in Frankfurt, Germany.
Contents
Work
Tonnis’ works are "supported with psychological knowledge"[1] His earliest drawings reflect his interest in psychoanalysis and psychopathology such as, catatonic rigidity or the postnatal psychosis depicted in his 1980–85 collection. To "show the psychic as a second face" he "uses stitchings, masks and fragments of masks—they are sometimes barely visible"[2]
“ ... in his portraits the artist Christiaan Tonnis shows us the tears in the psyche that are written into faces. In these paintings these faces are, as it were, stage areas of a forgotten Drama, only readable as old and rigid courses of action but with traces of the internal (hidden) foreigner ...
” — Kai Hoffmann, Frankfurter Rundschau, 1986-02-20
In 1986, he started to paint landscapes from literature like the "Magic Mountain (after Thomas Mann)" and portraits of writers and philosophers. E.g. "he stylizes the philosopher Wittgenstein to a sketchy Icon of a soulless prominence. An almost gruesome picture, expressive in its amply color scheme of white, grey and black, almost like a mold of a Hippocratic face"[3]
Since 2003 his work has become more meditative: "Geometric patterns in bright colors",[4] consistent with Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol) and New Testament—the series of minimalistic "Meditation pictures".
"Catwalk!" was exhibited at the Showroom Eulengasse in Frankfurt, Germany in 2007. The exhibition consisted of a series of collages created of cats' heads on women's bodies. The most recognizable bodies are those of Virginia Woolf "with big, sad eyes" and Kate Moss.[5]
In 2006 Tonnis set up a MySpace page dedicated to Thomas Bernhard, using pictures tell his biography. The theme of the page was Bernhard's motto "In the darkness everything becomes clear."
In 2008 Tonnis started to contribute reviews on art to the style magazine DAZEDDIGITAL.com, London.[6]
2009: During the "Sommeratelier" at Kunstverein Familie Montez, Frankfurt,[7] he created a painting for the performance "Who let the dogs out, Edith?". This "experimental collage of different media and arts" has been a dialogue with Heinrich von Kleist's play Penthesilea, directed by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg in 1988 with actress Edith Clever.[8]
Video
Tonnis started to make videos in 2006. His subjects have included William S. Burroughs, Thomas Bernhard and the poet Georg Trakl. Alongside these works stand the video series of "Dreams", "Electrical Pictures", and animals—exhibiting a pop, surreal pictorial language, often humorously staged.
Bibliography
- Christiaan Tonnis, "Krankheit als Symbol", Berlin Pro Business, 1. Edition 2006-11-03, ISBN 978-3-939533-34-4
Exhibitions and festivals (selection)
- 2010 Hinter dem Spiegel, Klosterpresse, Frankfurt
- 2009 Gut ist was gefällt, Kunstverein Familie Montez, Frankfurt
- 2008 Electrofringe, This Is Not Art, Newcastle
- 2008 Road Movie, Frieze Film at 6. Frieze Art Fair and Channel 4, London
- 2008 Antarctic Meltdown, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Melbourne
- 2007 Sem Palavras / Ohne Worte, Instituto Histórico de Olinda, Olinda
- 2007 CATWALK!, Eulengasse, Frankfurt
- 1990 Christiaan Tonnis, Galerie Limberg, Frankfurt
- 1989 Christiaan Tonnis, Galerie Einbaum, Frankfurt
- 1986 Zeichnungen, Galerie Das Bilderhaus, Frankfurt
Contributions to DAZEDDIGITAL.com
- 2009 Martin Kippenberger in New York
- 2008 Takashi Murakami in Frankfurt
- 2008 Mark Rothko in Hamburg
- 2008 The Archaeological Horror
- 2008 Female Impressionists in Frankfurt
- 2008 Frankfurt Goes To Brazil
Notes
- ^ "The Tears in the Psyche" ("Hübsches Frauengesicht als Flickwerk"), Frankfurter Rundschau, 1986-02-20
- ^ "The Face behind the Countenance", Giessener Allgemeine Zeitung, 1986-10-20
- ^ Hoffmann, Kai, "Face-Fragment as a Mask", Frankfurter Rundschau, 1990-08-30
- ^ "First Vernissage at 'Höpershof'", Wedemark Echo, 2006-11-11
- ^ Frick, Solveig, "Don´t be afraid of Virginia Woolf", Frankfurter Rundschau, No. 86, Page 31, 2007-04-13
- ^ Dazed Digital | Dazed & Confused Magazine, User Profile
- ^ Schütte, Christoph, "Kunst mit Familienanschluss", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, R4 Kultur, 2009-06-21
- ^ ""Gut ist was gefällt" im Kunstverein Familie Montez e.V.", kulturportal-hessen.de, 2009-08-23
External links
- Christiaan Tonnis in German National Library
- Christiaan Tonnis – Homepage
- "Female Warriors", re-title.com
- "William S. Burroughs 3" in Michel Houellebecq vs. William Burroughs, Thought Catalog, 24. April 2010
- Video "Thomas Bernhard – Frost", Art Visuals & Poetry, Austria
- Exhibitions listed on kunstaspekte.de
Categories:- 1956 births
- Living people
- Contemporary artists
- German painters
- Video artists
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