Nicole Büsing & Heiko Klaas: Most of the time, the interest in art is already aroused in the parental home, in the wider family or at school. Which were the early influences that played a role for you? For instance, we’re thinking about works of art at your parents’ home, important visits to exhibitions, reading, discussions, etc.
Charlotte Eschenlohr: The early influences certainly go back to the Chinese furniture and art in my parents’ and grandparents’ house. My father and grandparents lived in the old China for a number of years. The furniture and works of art they brought back created a very unusual environment. Nobody else at that time had Chinese furnishings.
At the age of 13, I traveled on my own for the very fist time on a short trip to visit my aunt in Basle. I went to the art gallery all on my own and saw an installation in the dark, which made my heartbeat audible. That was a very exciting experience and at the same time symbolic. Interesting modern art still makes my heart beat faster. Picasso too was undeniably an important subject, since my father was very interested in his painting.
NB & HK: Today, you work as an artist yourself. But before we delve more deeply into this subject, we would very much like to hear from you what role the occupation with art played during your business management studies in Berlin. Surely there were exciting encounters with artists and impressive visits to exhibitions here too. Clearly, you are quite familiar with the Berlin art world of the 80s. How do you feel about this period when you look back now?
CE: In Berlin I studied very hard, while also taking care of the financial management of a children’s theatre. The first few years of employment at Deutsche Treuhand were very absorbing in terms of time, which left little room outside professional matters. At that time, art was more of a background noise.
Of course, I was aware of the new Fauves and was very impressed by their liveliness, colorfulness and directness of style. Expressionist painting has always been my favorite and this new style of painting seemed like a resurrection with an entirely cheeky new look. It was also an interesting expression of life, which appeared wild and free, like the painting itself. I pretty well experienced this at close hand in the relevant bars like Exil and Paris Bar. At that time, the art world was still small compared to today. Everything happened in a small number of places. Artists from Vienna had established these two bars and created an interesting mix of art and life with good food, in which I immersed myself very happily.
At that time, I already bought pictures and drawings now and again. Mostly in galleries in Charlottenburg, which was also where I was living. I still remember the Metropolis exhibition very clearly. That was an entirely new way to experience art – playful, funny and sassy, almost like an adventure playground for grown-ups.
NB & HK: It’s a decisive step that changes everything from a passive occupation with art as an exhibition visitor and occasionally also as a collector, to an active producer of works of art. What was it that spurned you on to become an artist yourself? Which media did you work in at the beginning?
CE: My role as host was without doubt important. I put together invitations with an Eat-Art artist I had befriended. These invitations led to panel paintings and objects. Sometimes I also designed objects for these invitations directly and had them produced, for example an object entitled "Mit 50 wird geleuchtet" (At 50 we light up), made up of illuminated ostrich eggs, which with the use of reflective mirrors stretches into infinity. These invitations and the resulting objects, drawings and panel paintings were very well received, which made me increasingly more curious to discover my artistic potential. I wanted to know there and then.
My first public appearance with the "Living Table" performance took place as part of the final exhibition of the International Summer Academy in Salzburg and was very well received. It was actually an organizational development, from playing host in a private setting through to an Eat-Art performance, aimed at the public. I then did a lot of sculptural work with stone and bronze. It was a time of meditation, of being engrossed in the material, of slowly hewing the stones. Work that firmly grounds you and which helped make the process of ‘reprogramming’ from the previous job as businesswoman into an artist very much easier. I now wanted to work with light materials. A seminar run by Donald Baechler gave me the decisive impetus. From then on, the focal point of my interest was painting. This allowed me to travel light, i.e. with a paintbrush and canvas to set up my ‘Temporary Studio’ in New York.
NB & HK: What is the appeal for you to relocate your studio to other cities? Regularly New York, between times Berlin, and most recently Rome. How do you approach these cities? How do you transfer the different energies these cities generate into your work?
CE: The appeal of a temporary studio, especially in New York, but also in Rome und Berlin, lies in the distance, the foreignness, in leaving behind the familiar structures. One could describe this with the term ‘out of space’ – like a new imaginary space that becomes real through painting, and links distance and proximity. The different energies of these cities change the perception and serve as a basis for creative impulses, which aid this transformation.
Coming close to these unfamiliar places is something that happens indirectly. Initially, my medium is the camera. I take hundreds of photos, which I use to develop painted motives. Sometimes I also use these photos directly. For example, the last series of "NY Patterns" is painted on digital prints, which in turn are based on serialized photos from New York. My work is also direct because I always work intensively with an artist plus one or even several models on the spot. This creates a very intensive and lively exchange very quickly. This way, the motives city and human being come together quite easily. They leave the sphere of pure portrayal and come to life almost playfully.
NB & HK: The direct contact with artists or models living on the spot consequently offers you much more direct access to the relevant city and the local art community. How do you jointly approach the relevant conditions? What activities are there outside the studio? What places do you visit? And what about the models? We assume it depends on them too having that ‘certain something’?
CE: What matters most with this approach is to transform the position of being a visitor and observing from a distance into an immersion in the relevant city and the local community. Because of the temporary situation, this process is very concentrated and can be achieved this way only with a person on the spot who supports me artistically and in terms of work organization. It’s like an essence that needs to be won, which is gradually sifted out in conversation with an artist of the relevant city and naturally also stands in context with one’s own position and state.
This immersion takes a very lively form through contacts to other artists, visits to their studios, visiting exhibitions, exploring the city and most of all through the work with one or more mainly female models. I place the models directly into each scene, be it the terrace of my Brooklyn studio with the skyline of Manhattan in the background or into the backdrop of a Roman park. I constantly move between the two media: the media of photography and the media of drawing. I change between the different tempo of the fast camera and the slower, rather contemplative drawing. The choice also depends on the subject matter. A nude portray cannot be easily realized in a metropolitan setting. A quick photo shoot is generally the only option. The subtly differentiated reconnaissance of the physical and psychological expression subsequently takes place in the studio. The painting is composed with the aid of both media. Spontaneous expression and reflection blend together, retaining the animated expression.
NB & HK: Time and again when one looks back into the history of art you’ll find painters who worked with many different nude models in cosmopolitan milieus. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec visited the pleasure districts of Montmartre. Pablo Picasso put every one of his favorites in the limelight against a different background. The relationship of male painter – female model is certainly often complex, ambivalent and charged with tension, but for the observer perfectly possible to interpret with a little imagination. As a female painter why do you in particular prefer the connection with female nude models?
CE: Because I am a woman. Because I want to cast a feminine eye on the picture of a woman. The popular female image is traditionally shaped from a man’s perspective and often lingers on the object-like portrayal. This woman doesn’t show herself, she disappears behind clichés and role-play. In that sense, she is never naked.
My women are naked in a different way. The approach is determined neither theoretical nor conceptually, but purely sensory, drawing both on the situation and the unconscious. It’s a celebration, a great joy, seized freedom, autonomy and most of all clarity. My women are colorful and expressive. They don’t hide and that’s what gives them their strength. The concern with the model is always a balance. In my panting, uncovering individual characteristics and the observation of different cultural and national backgrounds are mixed with a self-reflection about one’s own physical and psychological situation. This turns the picture of the woman into a picture of a woman.
NB & HK: After your excursions and artistic self-discoveries in Europe and the USA, you are now planning a prolonged stay in a studio in China. With what expectations and goals do you set out on the exciting path into the Asian artistic and cultural context?
CE: It’s true this is the start of an entirely new chapter in my artistic life, which I approach with a lot of excitement and joy. I’ve experienced Asia on many trips. With the exception of Laos, I’ve already traveled across the whole of Southeast Asia as well as in China. Nonetheless, this was always just a view from the outside, because up to now I could not see any possibility to work there artistically.
This opportunity now presents itself and for the first time I’m leaving the western context and will be setting up my temporary studio in Peking. This work concept has always been relatively easy for me to organize with the kind support of friends from the art world. Until recently, I did not have any starting point to be able to realize such a project in China. This new opportunity has now arisen through my contact to a well-known gallery owner in Berlin, who also runs a gallery in Peking, which allows me to work directly on the spot.
My luggage contains the Chinese letters from my grandfather, in general my family background, which is greatly shaped by ancient Chinese culture. I start out on my journey surrounded by art objects from the time of Imperial China at my home in Munich. I’m immersing myself in the new China, in the ready to go atmosphere of the still very young modern art, in the dynamism and joy that emanates from Chinese artists, to now be right at the heart of the modern age, of the new art. This enthusiasm is very well described by the title of a recent exhibition of modern Chinese art here in Germany: "All The Great Modern Things - Chinese Pop".
That’s my elixir. What matters now is the mix.