Art and Morality

we ran into an old class mate of my girlfriend's at a party last night, and she told me he failed the art uni because he refused, to the end, to ever talk about his obsession, the subject matter of his life's work, or his relationship to it. his name is Dennis Rudolph; he left early and she said he was probably going to the studio to work, that he's constantly working with no pauses -- that's how maniacally dedicated to his art he is. he also met her grandfather once, who is an anarchist socialist hippie of sorts; and he (Dennis) told him (grandfather) that he is sad that today there is no major war in the world, and that every man should experience war at least for a few years in his life -- at which point her grandfather showed him the door. we looked him up today, represented by some very good galleries:


Adler, 2006


Der Frühling, mit Linolschnitt Mörgenröthe, (The Spring and ... not sure what the other one means)


Tempelbau (Temple)


Empire


Verlust der Mitte (Collapse of the Center - may be bad translation)


Macht des Blutes (Power of the Blood)




Das Opfer der Massen


Ausstreu der Saat (Planting of the Seed)


Harvest



installation view


Maria


Das goldene Kind (the Golden Child), 2007


Hagen, 2008


Siegfried, 2007


Spengler


General


Abendland II (Winter Land - i think that's what it means?)


Ewiges Eis, Der Herbst (Eternal Ice, Autumn)


Am Eismeer, Der Winter (On the Arctic Ocean, Winter)

above images from http://www.jette-rudolph.de/

i must say a part of me really love this work, morally problematic as it may be. (the same part of me that loves Laibach and black metal i suppose...)

so what is the right way to deal with an artist like this? whose relationship to the morally questionable at best, deplorable at worst material is undefined, but clearly more than mere irony or sensationalism. was it right for the university to fail him? how do we interpret or look at this work?

Some of those landscapes are so visually striking and strange. To trot out the old cliche 'I don't know much about art, but I knows what I likes'... on the level of visual impression.

This one



reminds me of this



a little. Presumably its a conscious reference?

Then of course, the 'arctic ocean at winter' makes me think of this



Interesting how his pictures are completely drained of colour. Suggests an unsettling reframing of German romanticism (as does the Nazi iconography)...

Also it interests me that in this picture



the Swastika has been turned into a cross - is this just a matter of censorship? The general looks like a mummified corpse in it.

oh wow. "Power of the Blood" more than resembles the Caspar David Friedrich just a little bit... this Dennis fellow copied the branches straight from the older image!

most of the landscapes are medium to small size, but a few are pretty large... 200+ cm. and must be pretty powerful seen in person... but i think they can be even darker, more powerful, and more unsettling... but he's pretty young, in his early 30s, so there is plenty of time to improve...