Text: M.W.

Despite the present currency of works promising a multiplicity of facets, few practising artists appear ready to trade the recognisability of a singular style or procedural monotony for the hazards of methodological diversification. While never fully abandoning her roots in figurative painting, Ingrid Mauthner remains open to experimentation, alternating between different supports, techniques and subject matter, creating a range of artefacts that are nevertheless unmistakably hers with their dedication to saturated colours and their energetic, swift distribution. Other commonalities borrowed from fashion and cosmetics are colour-blocking, contouring and the liberal application of glitter. With respect to the latter, Mauthner has recently embraced its reflective effectiveness as the essence of her latest series of works, which she calls ‘near-sculptures’: covering canvasses with layers of different hues of glitter suspended in a transparent glue solution or other liquid adhesives, which are varyingly poured, dripped, spread with brushes, sticks and palette knives or applied directly with gloves. The process results in meandering, coagulated coats of iridescent particles that in some cases resemble organic structures (lichens, algae) or flamboyant camouflage patterns. Their uneven, condensed surface invites viewers confronting these near-sculptures to keep readjusting their position, so as to experience their shifting reflections and impressions – simultaneously immaterial and solidly physical.

 

Text on the occasion of the exhibition „Glitter & Stardust“
Text: Ingrid Mauthner

Ingrid Mauthner’s material for the exhibition is glitter, which she has used since the end of 2015 mainly in her pictures. A space-encompassing installation is currently under construction. The artist paints her studio walls in a highly spontaneous and disciplined way and constructs a sculpture to connect surfaces with the space. The title of the artist’s expanded artwork is „Love.Time.Wall.“. A large-scale piece of artwork with reference to the space that can not be circumvented. The perspective, the point of view in the room can be changed, which makes the artwork dynamically alternating.

„The light that is thrown back from the hexagonal to rectangular shapes of the glitter chips makes the image glow. My glitter pictures are “near-sculptures” (“Fastplastiken”) and you have to look at them from different points of view. They change their appearance and their splendour is enchanting.” (I. Mauthner, July 2016)

The illuminated walls and pictures, staged by the light, change their colour effect. The changing effects give the work an iridescent aura.

The work technique and compositions of Ingrid Mauthner
Text: Doris Fries

First and foremost, Ingrid Mauthner works in a painterly and graphic manner. She predominantly uses a representational visual language, which is implemented by means of a spontaneous and swift method – Mauthner herself uses the term “determined painting”. This dynamism and kineticism runs through the majority of her works and infuses them with their peculiar presence and vitality. In this respect, decorative and “non-narrative” elements occupy an important place within Mauthner’s visual cosmos: be it in the application of lettering in the image area, in the form of “cool” slogans as dynamic-atmospheric agents, in the form of inordinately large arabesques or opulent patterns of fabrics or wallpapers serving as backdrops for Mauthner’s visual scenes. Nevertheless, it would be reductive to dismiss these design elements as purely decorative props and prettifying accessories. On the contrary, decorative elements are elevated to sovereign means of composition in Mauthner’s paintings: the influence of cartoons and graffiti from entertainment and street culture on the artist in particular becomes evident. Consistently, Mauthner’s visual constructions are free montages on the canvas, in which narrative-representational elements are interwoven with decorative-abstract ones and simultaneously enter the image narrative. In this regard, the homogeneous image space of the central perspective is frequently abandoned in favour of visual plurality and eclectic visual dynamism. Chromaticity is highly significant in Ingrid Mauthner’s art. Colour as a means of composition and expression plays an important part in her artistic production. Her visual language is characterized by a lavish, rich palette. It not only serves as a means for narration but in particular to convey emotions and moods through its non-naturalistic qualities as well, such as in order to evoke contemporariness and coolness but also to serve purely decorative ends. For instance, the protagonists in “Model” and “Twins I and II” (both 2005) present themselves to the viewer as coolly-distanced as they appear fragile. The radiant colouring of these works excels at expressing the superficially noisy and glitzy aspects of the fashion industry.

Oeuvre

“I like to tell stories; as such, figurative painting feels closer to me. It is very important to me to provide the viewer with a message” – the artist in an interview with Austrian radio station Ö1 in 2003.

The paintings by Ingrid Mauthner are “narrative” works that primarily take their subject matter from social life as it is happening here and now. In this respect, the artist is less interested in everyday actions and events but rather in the glitzy, decadent style of “high” society’s public appearance. The striking, glossy aesthetics of society, fashion and lifestyle magazines represent a long-time attraction for the artist. In particular, the images and scenes found in these magazines are what inspires Mauthner and is included in her visual cosmos. In this regard, it is not always clear where the border to kitschy trash is being drawn – an expertly applied creative method of the artist through which she highlights the artificiality and constructedness of this media-imagery. The year 2009 sees the creation of a series of small-scale, intimate paintings called “From the Boudoir”, in which the artist references the genre of “Boudoir painting”. Originating in 18th century France with François Boucher as its chief representative, this type of art confronts the viewer with a cheerful, sensual world full of lascivious-erotic subject matter taken from myth and allegory. What links Mauthner’s paintings in this series with the historical movement is the role of the voyeur, involuntarily adopted by the viewers of these works. Boucher’s naïve, playful Rococo-eroticism, however, is replaced by Mauthner’s mercilessly revealed eroticism free from taboos. Her paintings bearing titles such as “You and Me”, “Come Closer, Darling”, “Supernatural IN2U”, “Mandy” (all 2009) critically reflect our overtly sexualised media landscape that we are faced with on a daily basis. In addition, landscape painting in particular represents another large, important part in Mauthner’s work. As such, it is the extensive, terraced vineyards and fields of her Lower Austrian home state in and around the towns Retz and Horn that have served as familiar subject since the beginning of her artistic career and remain favourite motifs of the painter. Of particular interest among the landscape paintings are those where Ingrid Mauthner supplements her palette with non-naturalist colourisation: rendered in partially pastel-coloured or garishly pop colours, the landscapes are distinctive not only in their enhanced expressiveness but again are reminiscent with their fairy-tale phantasm of the artist’s “society” series of works (e.g. “Smooth Transition”, 2006). This characteristic feature perhaps cannot be viewed without reference to her teacher Hubert Schmalix. A number of graphic works in mixed media is attributable to the years between 2001 and 2005, which are consistent in their personal portrayal of adolescents shown performing everyday actions by Mauthner. The familiar pop colours – see “Martin” (2005) – are in stark contrast to the introverted state of the protagonist. Completely withdrawn, casually squatting on the ground in a corner, his entire attention is focussed on an object that he is holding in his left hand. It can be surmised that it probably is a mobile phone or a portable media player. With his closely cropped hair, the colourful clothes and the meditative immersion the portrayed character is not only a typical example of modern day youth but furthermore evokes associations with the culture of Buddhist monks. The work itself invites associations with the intimate portraits of rock stars by the New York painter Elizabeth Peyton produced a few years earlier, such as “Blur (Kurt)” (1995) or “September (Ben)” (2001).

 

Text: Raoul Strange

The art of Ingrid Mauthner is a psychedelic mixture of colours, forms and recorded impressions that on the canvas conflate in multiple, dizzyingly contrasting perspectives. Everything that attracts attention is employed. In addition to extravagant and thickly applied paint, the artist also prefers to make use of all that glitters and shines, integrating patterns and geometric forms yet still defies stylistic categorization. Up to now, her work contains both figurative painting but also abstraction, the erotic and the conservative, city scenes and nature studies. In total, it seems as if Mauthner is choosing her subject matter based on its “power”. She does not appear to require any subsequently attached concepts, which turns her paintings into something resolutely unique and independent. The artist simply allows her own contrariness to “happen” and in this lies the very essence of the power of her work.