PORTRAITS – MASKS – VEILS

»The subject of the first exhibition is as topical as it is timeless: Masks and People. A great dream comes true for the region and for Ingrid Roosen-Trinks. A dream that lives out the vitality of art and human encounter. Because Ingrid Roosen-Trinks wants to inspire and move people: her exhibitions and art events are becoming the region’s new cultural meeting place – what a gain for Schleswig-Holstein!«

STEFANIE BUSOLD
ARTISTIC ADVISER AND REPRESENTATIVE OF Sotheby’s IN HAMBURG FOR NORTHERN GERMANY

About a hundred artworks have been displayed, everything from works on paper, such as photos and collages, to paintings, sculptures and video works. The entire Wittkielhof area has been transformed into a presentation arena, and not only one of the barns but also rooms in the manor house and the surrounding park had become a performance stage. The first exhibition in the new surroundings celebrated not just the collection’s further development at its new location and the expansion of the cultural offering in a rural region, but also a re-enlivenment of the artistic scene after a dismal 2021.
The curators of the first exhibition were Corinna Koch and Isa Maschewski from we, curatorial.

DAS! Report about the Ingrid Roosen-Trinks Collection, May 24, 2022 | NDR

Portraits often have a clear function; they should represent the personality of the person portrayed. Even if the reproduction of reality is not always in the foreground in this regard, it is not infrequently a question of approaching closer to the person depicted, in order to learn something about them. In the classic case, the face plays a central role in this respect.

In its composition, the painting entitled Businessman (2013) by Lennart Grau is reminiscent of Dutch portrait painting of the seventeenth century, but denies a view into the face of the man portrayed. It is a characteristic style of painting for Grau – impasto application of paint and the intermingling of the artist’s media – creating almost marbled surfaces and thus concealing any individual traits of the sitter. The businessman remains undefined and his identity a mystery.
In photography, Thorsten Brinckmann’s Telmche (2021) displays a traditional portrait that evokes associations with well-known representations from art history. Brinkmann toys with the unknowability of his subject matter: the depicted person looks as if he/she is turning away from the viewer, while a bright yellow handbag seems to become his/her head and equally to disguise it. The photography conveys irony and lightness despite the picture’s strict composition.
In contrast, the figure in Green Coat (2016), a watercolour by Maria Thurn and Taxis, appears rigid and frozen in the moment, and bears a gigantic mask instead of its head. Alienation and concealment are also the dominant elements in the series of works entitled Waywards by Thurn and Taxis. The similarities are obvious in these three works from the ROOSEN-TRINKS COLLECTION; three figurative representations and three enigmatic portraits, but different in their medium and storytelling. Nonetheless, they cast a spell and raise innumerable questions.

Confrontation with the unknown and even with our neighbours has changed, especially during the ongoing corona pandemic, when we mask our faces daily. What is meant by the inability to look someone in the face? What hides behind the mask?