Press Article

   

Simply beautiful and far away from kitsch

Stéphane Biesenbach shows pictures by Moritz Moll in his new gallery space on Lindenstraße

BY HEIDRUN WIRTH

A desire for spring, a desire for spring awakening: You can literally feel it in the Biesenbach Gallery. The brand new rooms that Stéphane Biesenbach has just moved into in Lindenstrasse are fresh and bright. And the spring-coloured paintings by Moritz Moll that fill the double room are just as bright and cheerful.

Moritz Moll, a graduate master student at the Munich Art Academy, was accepted onto the Free State of Bavaria's scholarship programme in 2021. He has already exhibited once at Galerie Biesenbach in 2022.

Determined by photorealism

These are young people captured here in a retro pop art style. They are reminiscent of Andy Warhol, Alex Katz or Tom Wesselmann, with their delicate faces defined by photorealism and their harmonious colours.

As the pop critic Diane Waldman described it for Roy Lichtenstein, it seems to be the same here: "Elegant refinement and intellectual precision transform trivial models into monumental everyday fetishes“.

The facial features are rendered in fine lines on the evenly coloured ink. A dynamic scene by Keith Haring is depicted in high contrast on the T-shirt worn by the dreamy young man. Only the young man's mop of hair above the greenish neon glasses, painted with broad brushstrokes, is of a different style. 

The artist sometimes used his brother as a model, sometimes his sister with transparent sunglasses. He develops his transparent painting style in a sophisticated way and celebrates the colours. 

However, the Pop Art reference is not the actual root, as can perhaps be seen quite strikingly in the picture entitled "Matisse". 

Gallery owner Stéphane Biesenbach emphasises that it was actually Matisse who portrayed his subject with his delicate drawings and once said: "Portraiture is one of the remarkable arts. It requires special gifts from the artist and the ability to identify almost completely with the model."

And it is precisely this special added value that Moritz Moll, born in Munich in 1991, knows how to convey. "Come Outside to Play" is the enticing title of this exhibition. 

And just like Matisse, who also sought and found harmony in plants, the young Moritz Moll succeeds in creating bouquets of flowers that are simply beautiful and yet far removed from kitsch in all shades of delicacy and reciprocity.

His painting is therefore not an imitation, but rather appears as a new painterly system parallel to nature.

Until 1 June, Tue to Fri 12-6pm, Sat 12-4pm, Lindenstraße 34.

Prices range from 1600 euros to 4500 euros.