What You See Is What You See, 2015.

Stig Brøgger, What You See Is What You See

01 October – 07 November 2015

In the 1960s Stig Brøgger was a major participant in the Pop, Minimal and Conceptual Art movements in Scandinavia. He has since then worked in a wide range of different media while maintaining his interest in the links between art, industrialisation and mass culture. In his paintings SB often use already existing images from the mass media, printed matter or photos, as well as things existing in the world in general, as his point of departure. These images he then change through acts of mimicry, displacement and reconstruction into new images. Over the years he has also worked extensively with abstract and geometric abstraction in continuation of this post-pop position. An expressive brushstroke here has the same value as fx a photo of a flower, as they are both pictorial elements and signs.

The current exhibition consists of several series of paintings made after 2012. Most of the works relate to the concept of colour samples – pictures which are normally made as preliminary works or sketches before the execution of the final work. Colour samples are associated with process more than end result. They have a pronounced spontaneity and intensity, an openness for sudden decisions as well as an obvious connection to the studio space. By using the aesthetics of the colour sample SB problematizes the connection between surface, perception and the substance of colour. The potential aspect of the images translate into an open-ended quality that are often missing from works where the process is hidden. They bring to mind how Frank Stella once described painting, as “whole ideas without any conclusion.”