Goldstaub

The collaboration with the artist Strawalde has already lasted about 20 years. Neither of us has ever counted how many exhibitions I have organized and presented with him during this time. Exhibitions of various formats, large-format oil paintings for the exhibition on the occasion of his 85th birthday in the St. Matthäus church, canvases, drawings, collages in various sizes for a variety of gallery presentations.
During a visit to his studio Strawalde showed me a portfolio of small-format collages, all approx. 21 x 14 cm in size. Already at the first inspection I was thrilled.
I took the folder with me at that time to have digital reproductions made. And the more often I looked at the individual sheets, it became clearer and clearer that these small formats show everything that drives Strawalde in his entire artistic work, that he is interested in. As in painting, he sets a first point and from this point the sheet seems to evolve self-evidently.
If one is lucky enough to know the studio, the enormous collection of materials, sheets of paper, piles of cardboard, old Japanese writings, French fabric sample catalogs… and much more. Discovered and collected during his travels by the artist, much of it in Parisian antiquarian bookshops and markets. With this huge treasure trove, everything is masterfully played with, as if it were a matter of course.
This is also true for the six small bronze sculptures, three-dimensional paintings, three-dimensional collages. All of them cast and patinated, some silver-plated at Marc Krepp in Berlin, all of them in a small edition, which is completed with the sixth casting, all of them pure gold dust.
 
Matthias Fuhrmann, May 2018