Born: 25.07.1952
Live: Handewitt / Germany
Website: www.reinhard-stammer.de
Facebook: stammerart
“The bold works of Reinhard Stammer seem to form a direct stream from his subconscious mind
to the canvas surface, assaulting the viewer with the vinegar of turbulent agony and sweet recollections all at once. Many lifetimes of experience and exploration seem poured out into color, line and shape. Declarations made through textures and emerging shapes require from the viewer the willingness to quietly and slowly decode a multitude of symbols through contemplation, free association and complete immersion in the painterly surface.” - Written by Janis Kirstein
Art Historian Dr. Vöhringer has said:
“Reinhard Stammer is, in the best sense of the word, an autodidact.”
The term goes back to the philosophers, aphorisms, writers and poets of Lichtenberg. And it’s good that there are the self-taught in art, he continues and he calls as an example the painting customs officer Henri Rousseau. The well known art critic Uwe Lempelius has said in reference to the work of Mr Stammer,
“The fact that art is studied, is no guarantee of the quality of the painted works of art. Only the way that you paint the art is the final guarantee. And this, he says distinguishes the difference between being an artist and being another kind of professional. There are no autodidactic doctors or lawyers, he adds. “But I know several artists without education who are members of the Federation of Artists. Just think of the naive customs officer Henri Rousseau whose naive art Picasso once discovered.” “Yes, now I have included Stammer with these big artists,” Lempelius says. “Mr.Stammer has given rise to a whole series of paintings, where if the viewer discovered these works in a museum as an exhibit, he could not determine if the artist was an amateur.”
Reinhard Stammer was born on 25/07/1952 in Glücksburg on the Baltic Sea.
He says of painting : “The joy of painting, has been with me since I was in the cradle.”
He finds it interesting that symbols found in his pictures from his early youth have re-emerged in his later works as well.
He says that he studied life with all its ups and downs, with its light – and dark sides. “ I lived my life passionately and sometimes excessively. There was no apparent plan. At age 32, I founded the PARC-Verlag,
www.parc.de.” Stammer’s study of Buddhism and Advaita, along with his many visits to Ramesh Balsekar in Bombay have been the source of many answers to questions he has asked since early childhood.
He believes that the non duality or as Ramesh Balsekar says: “consciousness is all there is” seems somehow to be expressed in his paintings. As Stammer continued to paint through the years, he increasingly lost interest in merely reproducing the visible world. A painted flower is not an actual flower, nor a painted man an actual human, he says. “It is color on a substrate. Nothing more and the colors and shapes call forth the viewer’s own memories.” Looking back over his many years painting, Stammer evaluates his paintings by saying, “In 30 years, not very many paintings emerged, but some were particularly beautiful and interesting pictures.” During this time, he also wrote poems and also a chronicle, which originated in this period.
He also attributes his ability to compensate severe calamities that struck him at the age of 52 years with his act of painting. He says of painting, “She saved my life, so I am grateful for this gift that enabled me some to give something through my pictures.”
I would like to give special thanks to Reinhard Stammer for allowing me to feature his art work on
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What is remarkable about your art?
I am a self employed contemporary artist and my art is free from all conditions
What can visitors expect from your exhibition in Shanghai?
I hope something different to the main stream
What are you looking forward mostly at Shanghai International Art Fair?
A good response and visitors who can feel my art not only with their eyes , but also with their hearts.
How would you describe yourself? And your artwork?
I and my artwork is one. It is personalized and arrises directly from my heart and soul.
What is your definition of art?
An artist always is influenced by other artists, by history and the social environment. The result depends on the mentality of the artist.
Can you tell us what you “Before I die” is?
Before I die I hope to get most peaceful as possible
Which are your favorite artists?
Pollock, Twombly, Picasso, Klee, van Gogh, Basquiat, Tapies
I know my artwork is finished when...?
I mostly have no plan what to paint. It’s a kind of meditation. There is no me, there is only painting. At one point there is the feeling, that each additional color or line will destroy the artwork.
