Johannes Schwartz: Shadow Stabbing

Annet Gelink Gallery proudly presents the solo-show Shadow Stabbing by photographer Johannes Schwartz (1970, MÜnchen). In 2000 his work was shown in The Bakery, the gallery's project space.
According to Schwartz photography offers the possibility to capture the 'künstliche' inherent in reality; "Everything is 'kunstlich,' a form of design." His photographs lead the spectator along the formal aspects of the every-day.
From its inception, photography was accorded a representative function which was formerly primarily the terrain of painting. At present the belief in an objective representation of reality has faded and photography, in the digital age, no longer needs to be a snapshot of reality.
Schwartz is, however, a traditional photographer in the sense that he photographs what he finds around him. He does not stage the scene beforehand or manipulate his images afterwards. His choice of subjects place him firmly within the present; he constantly investigates whether the division between the real and chimerical, the original and the copy, can remain unabbreviated.
Vermeer (2001) is a photograph by Schwartz of a puzzle of Vermeer's famous painting Melkmeisje (1658-60) of a young milkmaid. The photograph shows the completed puzzle hung like a painting on a wall. The image raises the question of where we may locate the original; is it the painting by Vermeer, the puzzle of the painting or Schwarz's photograph? All three of these options could be justified, but it is the tension between the authentic and the reproduction that Schwartz looks for in his work.
A similar interrogation forms the basis of another series in the show. Schwartz has taken the unification of the three paintings of sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh during the exhibition Van Gogh - Gauguin at the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam last year as his subject. He photographed the lower sections of these paintings concentrating on the different shadows created by their frames and also showing the security cord which separates the public from them. He consequently renders visible the staged element of the exhibition and, in a wider sense, of life itself.