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CHRISTIAN BAHR

Joined Artfinder: March 2016

Artworks for sale: 109

(1)

Germany

Updates from CHRISTIAN BAHR's studio

  • HOPE

    HOPE

    "Art is healing. And painting is a mirror of our inner landscapes. Mountains and valleys, we carry everything inside. If we believe in art, every artwork means hope. Reality is no longer the limit. Art opens the internal dialogue, new worlds and perspectives. We are alive. We are living. And we are fighting. Worth fighting for hope and light. Art is the answer, and art makes it possible."

    23 May 2019
    ART

    ART

    “Not everything is art. But art is everything, and everything can breathe art. Art is the true beauty of mankind.”

    17 June 2018
    HUMANS

    HUMANS

    "We humans stand between hope and fear, history and now. This is the starting point for my inspiration... I do not want to create art that can be both everything and nothing."

    17 June 2018
    FIGHT

    FIGHT

    “I’ve always painted since my earliest youth, and over the years, a subconscious inclination turned into a serious artistic profession. But it was not a straight path. Painting is a beauty, soul and passion, but sometimes fighting. A fight with myself, this endless struggle for colors and motif in your own conversation, as an rough internal dialogue. There are these days and nights, when I fight for every single brushstroke, when I question every color scheme. But it’s good it’s not always easy. Because each of these artistic battles is worthwhile and shows that I am as a painter still alive, breathing and developing.“

    19 March 2016
    BRIGHTNESS

    BRIGHTNESS

    "My paintings are created intuitively and directly. Approaches, colors, and shapes are born at the moment. As a result of a dominant sensation in me that comes along the way, makes itself heard, and urges for an immediate implementation. It must be as distance-free as possible, without extensive drafts. Not a constructed mind game, but emotional, or otherwise: rough, melancholic, heavy, but at the same time bright, poetic and hopeful. No maybe, no lukewarm. Every single moment counts during the execution, remains important and can lead to a change of direction. I stay alert. I do not sacrifice the line for the idea, and I like the permanent creative risk at work, the radical nature of the decisions to make during the process. I paint and draw only in this way and not otherwise. I do not want to show the unimportant in my paintings, because the unimportant and triviality is just decoration, a deceptive and pleasing accessory that distracts from the core and from my message. No detours, no beautiful facades. I deny the unimportant without any ifs and buts, even though the decision is not always easy to make, because sometimes the unimportant cleverly camouflages as an important part of the painting. I remove the unimportant from the canvas without residues. It is a dialogue with me. I want it focused on the core, reduced to the essence. Everything else is a betrayal of the statement of the painting."

    18 March 2016
    INSPIRATIONS

    INSPIRATIONS

    "I am deeply grateful that my inspiration is a never-ending river. Nevertheless, I am – both unconsciously and consciously – naturally in a tradition with my painting. My points of reference are very different. They run the past centuries and range from the Classical Modernism through the Art Nouveau, Expressionism and Impressionism to today’s Contemporary Art. I am influenced by painters like Rembrandt and Caravaggio, J. M. William Turner and his visionary abstraction of colors, by the incredible Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Egon Schiele and Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, even by Gustav Klimt and his interpretation of Art Nouveau, the impressionist Claude Monet (especially his old age work). Then there are the works of the great abstract American painters Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler. And from the area of the contemporary: Neo Rauch because of his seriousness in the thematic handling, Gerhard Richter (of course), the poetic draftsman Horst Janssen, and last but not least the rough Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer. These are the poles between which I move. Impressions, influences, currents, nothing more, nothing less. I can get involved in all these paintings and biographies, but I as an artist go my own independent way(s)."

    18 March 2016
    LARGE

    LARGE

    “I work in my studio nearby the rough North Sea and the big waterfront city Hamburg. I am deeply grateful that I’ve got the ability to paint in my strong poetical way and with a clear recognition value. My canvas paintings are the core of my artwork. I`ve created more than 350 paintings on canvas to date. I prefer the large-sized format because it gives me – mentally and physically – the creative space that I need for my inspiration and transformations. In most cases I use oil and acrylic colours on canvas and in mixing techniques. I principally work from dark to lightness, mix the colours on the canvas first and act with a powerful, high-contrast palette. Blue, red, yellow and grey shades have a vital importance in my paintings.”

    18 March 2016
    THE ARTIST

    THE ARTIST

    Born in 1965, in a snowy December in Buxtehude (Lower Saxony/Germany). For more than 35 years I have been a passionate painter and draftsman, selling worldwide and with national and international exhibitions. I was educated humanistically, I have the major Latinum, followed by high school diploma, study and finally university diploma. Artistic and historical studies took place on time and followed, partly autodidactically. My love of art has always accompanied me. But it was not a straightforward path to the professional painter that I am today. Because today as then I was and I am my biggest critic. It took time for me to develop a convincing own style in my art, repeating not only pleasing but already well-known artistic positions. It was a search for this personal recognition value, that I found myself in what I created. I first had to find the reason why I could neither live nor want to live without painting. Because my work needs this lack of distance, a high degree of individual emotionality. Today I am grateful for these detours, they made me a very conscious, profound artist. And so, for a while, I took other paths, in addition to and alongside art. So I am also a cosmopolitan, connoisseur of the history of antiquity and the Middle Ages, veteran and bearer of the Medal of Honor of the German army (Bundeswehr), lifeguard, judoka with brown belt. And I was with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on the border with Mexico on patrol and trainer for the Russian customs administration. All these very different, very real experiences ground me in the here and now. They help me incredibly in my current art as multi-layered inspirations. And as an added value from my not so straightforward artist biography, I have clear, realistic points of view in my painting. I am proud of these viewpoints and I can talk well about them, in my paintings and outside, because they have been moving me for years, critically questioned and thought out. I learned a lot about humans. And that’s exactly why I always focus on the knowledge of people and their destinies in my painting. In my painting, I am completely with myself today.

    18 March 2016
    ABOUT QUALITY & DELIVERY

    ABOUT QUALITY & DELIVERY

    "All paintings bear my signature on the front and are again signed, titled and dated on the back and have a signed original certificate from me (Certificate of Origin, important for the increase in value and a possible subsequent resale). I use only oil and acrylic paints, canvases and wooden stretcher frames in professional museum quality and from brand manufacturers. Most of my paintings are accompanied by poems, each of which I wrote especially for the piece and which are understood as an additional part of the artwork. In any case, each buyer receives a comprehensive cover letter (in German or English), in which I go into the creative process of the painting and explain my associations. The sides of the canvases are usually not part of my work and show the bare, white or black canvas fabric with a few speckles of paint (as it is also standard for professional painting). All paintings can be hung immediately (ready to hang) and do not require any further surface treatment or framing (whereby framing is basically possible, but purely optional and a matter of taste). To delivery: Do not worry, I have experience in shipping my works worldwide. The painting is professionally packed and transported safely. Each of my paintings receives a package made of acid-free paper (with special edge protection made of cardboard), plastic wrap (to protect against dust, moisture and odor), bubble wrap and foam boards. Thus prepared, the painting is packed in a wooden crate (stable and specially made to the dimensions of the piece) and quickly transported to you by a reputable carrier, usually within a few days."

    18 March 2016
    CARPE DIEM

    CARPE DIEM

    "What I know after all these years and what is one important message of my painting: life is really unpredictable. There’s only a very thin line between truth and lie, enthusiasm and fanaticism, victim and perpetrator, light and shadows, and yes – last but not least – between life and death. There are no easy answers and it is complicated. Life is beautiful and life is hard, sometimes tinged with melancholy and sometimes like a summer day. But we must not lose faith in the good. Carpe diem – seize the day."

    18 March 2016