Janaina Tschäpe: Flatland

Sex, death, and the female body’s capacity for renewal and transformation are among the themes that emerge from the paintings, drawings, and photographs of German-born contemporary artist Janaina Tschäpe. Physically sensuous, with rich, layered colors and soft lines, Tschäpe’s works create the sensation of being underwater or suspended in air.
This beautifully illustrated book—designed and produced in collaboration with the artist—is the first to offer a complete overview of Tschäpe’s full body of work. Tschäpe’s artistic process consciously mimics processes found in the natural world—the product of the artist’s time in Brazil, where the bounty of nature is such that living things must often emerge from something else, like a tree boring through a crack in the sidewalk or a plant breaking through a concrete wall. As such, the paintings themselves appear to be in the process of becoming made, palimpsests upon which each emphatic brushstroke partially occludes those made previously. In this way, Tschäpe gradually builds forms and finely calibrates color through layers of accumulation.
            Tschäpe’s paintings and drawings are held in the collections of museums worldwide, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris; among others. Janaina Tschäpe will contribute to an understanding of how the artist’s distinct voice and style.