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his website.... http://www.karl-maenz.com
Born in Germany, I have lived in the U.S., several European countries, and for many years with my wife Mireille and our darling Dalmatian Freckeli on the shores of Lake Geneva and in the Swiss mountains. I work intuitively, with only a minimum of programmed intent. Conseqently my paintings and photographs are spontaneous and colorful images of my world, in- and outside. I am happy when my works touch the spirit within us in a way we cannot explain. I’ve only recently begun to exhibit: in Switzerland and in Italy at "The Spirit in Art", Ferrara, the Florence 2007 Biennale, Galeria Centro Storico Florence, and Galleria De Marchi, Bologna. A few of my works are in private hands in the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and several European countries.
My painting is usually an iterative process. There's an idea, but translating it onto a canvas becomes too cerebral. With luck, I then switch over into a non-programmed, loose, abstract expressionist and gestural mode - only to subdue the original idea. This is what happened in some of the paintings shown here.
The “1001 nights” series started after a private encounter with the world of Islam, which had ended in a personal conflict. Was this what Samuel P. Huntington describes as “The Clash of Civilizations”? I needed reconciliation on a higher level of thought: what is it that unites us in our common humanity? Instead of writing down what came to mind, I began painting. And got into a wonderful groove. A dozen paintings later I felt reconciled. In an allusion to the colorful tradition of Arab works of art and tales, I called the abstract series “1001 nights”.
In “Shangri-la”, the idea of Genesis and Paradise was overtaken by the process of intuition and gestural painting. Once finished, these charming miniatures reminded me of paradise, fictional and imaginary but earthly, and I named the series "Shangri-La". Shangri-La (from James Hilton’s novel “Lost Horizon”) is a mystical, harmonious valley, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains in the Himalayas.
K.H.Maenz
Les Pralies 22
CH-1279 Bogis-Bossey, Switzerland
home +41-22-776 5183
cellphone +41-79-691 1322
e-mail:..... maenzkh (at) hotmail (dot) com