CLASSICISM AND BACK

In his large-format, very graphic works, Thomas Zeitlberger brings together disparate elements that in their collective power explode the boundaries of decoration. He is not too shy to place the world-renowned emblem of the French handbag brand next to gothic window arches on floating, light walls. The artist positively calls himself a “manipulated being”; in his collages created with modern technological means, he relates several creative constructions to the multifaceted environmental influences that assail him through modern media.

Despite his modern stance, Zeitlberger also sees himself as working in the tradition of a historical genre. “I feel related to the nineteenth century, the age of classicism, a period when one mixed artistic styles.” He empties his cornucopian imagination without slipping into the absurd in the process. The artist estimates the influence of brands and logos as relatively low. “Brands and symbols are mostly quoted only in art and design since they reflect a society at a specific place and time. Luxury brands produce consumer goods and are therefore worthless at a deeper level. Art, on the contrary, does not.

Horst Klöver