MAX WERNER BY ROBERT RAPHAEL (PFD)
THE STRANGE CASE OF MAX WERNER BY RAFAEL SQUIRRU
The case of the artist Max Werner is strange indeed. Born in Ghent, Belgium, he followed his education in the French part of the country.His next step would carry him to London where he studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art, from whence he pursued further studies at the famous Slade School of Art, having eventually taught etching at both institutions.
My first knowledge of Max Werner’s work came through one of his exhibitions in Buenos Aires at the prestigious Art House Gallery, which was showing mainly his etchings.I was immediately struck by the superb quality of his prints, in that special media known as aquatint, which was so successfully developed by Goya in his Caprichos. There was no doubt that Max Werner was a true master.It was only lately that I came across his paintings, and it is on account of these that I speak of his strange case.For the last five years, Max has lived in Buenos Aires, traveling mostly in the south, not only of Argentina, but of Chile as well.What is intriguing about his paintings is their capacity to capture wide spaces both of land and sky with such neatness that argues not only of his magnificently trained eye, but also of that condition inherent in Flemish art, which has never abandoned his keen sensitivity.
As an Argentine critic, I feel both the familiarity and the strangeness of these landscapes.The familiarity of these scenes has now become mysterious, when the brushes are handled within a tradition that gave us the Elder Brueghel, and in our modern days the genius of Magritte.Werner could be comfortably classified as a realist, sticking as he does to the precise details of nature. Yet when contemplating his paintings I feel transported to unknown regions, I might say unknown sphere, untrodden as yet by human feet.
There is no doubt for me that Max Werner is a true poet of visual arts and because of it, the key to his creations lies in that dimension we call spiritual.
Buenos Aires, November 2002
STEFAN BURGI : EMOTIONAL AND MATERIAL LANDSCAPES
Max Werner
Emotional and material landscapes: the exploration of light and darkness
By Stefan Burgi – contact@stefanburgi.com
Riding on a horse in the mountains of Wyoming on a trail that is hardly wider than a few feet, Max Werner and his daughter settle for a break. The view they have is untouched by mankind. The landscape has remained the same since the first Indians set foot there, heading off into the mountains to hunt for food, some thousands of years ago.It is unusual to find anyone up there now, only bears, wolves, and other wild animals, live in those vast forests , and in the skies above eagles are circling, but for the Belgian artist, this is where he feels at home. His passion for riding and a fascination for wild and vast spaces make him return to Wyoming for several months every year. There are many stories to be told about what he and his companions witness on their trips, stories that are told through his paintings.
If one looks at his landscapes one can see what makes this area so beautiful with its high mountains and wide valleys, the thick forest and the intense sky. These are the elements that dominate Werner’s paintings, each one respectfully brought to life through a brush stroke that traces the space, knowing every step, every little stone, every little bush, every tree.
When a specific scenery captures Werner’s attention he rests and soaks in the shades of light, the smell of the air, all the elements that make the particular moment special. He takes a few notes, makes a few sketches, and takes photos, then rides off further on his trail.
Back at his studio, he goes over all the material he has collected on his trip and starts painting. The first part he paints in every painting is the sky, which defines the light of the entire landscape. Light, in fact, is the aspect of Werner’s work, which guided him throughout his entire career as the most significant element, defining his style and the media he uses. Growing up in Ghent, a town in Belgium, light was scarce and days short. Werner’s fascination for light, and also darkness, were highly influenced by Hergé, the creator of the legendary Tin Tin comic series. Werner was always impressed by Hergé’s use of “clair-obscur”in order to create atmospheres that had something magical and even threatening. The dimensions that light and darkness can take on, and how the etching can bring these to life, brought Werner to study the technique of etching and become a master in creating images of mental narratives, emphasizing this very dark and gloomy world of shadow and light. At the time when he started studying fine arts, Werner moved to London, much like Ghent, dominated by dark days and heavy skies. There he created most of his etching work, which is filled with stories and narratives of ideas and situations he encountered in every-day life and even in his dreams. It is impressive to see how the humor of these narrative etchings always achieves to penetrate the viewer’s passiveness and actively forces emotions to emerge. The wit combined with the excellent mastery of the technique, truly bring out emotional landscapes that touch the viewer with personal familiarity and yet threaten him with a darkness that persists.
When comparing the work Werner produced during his years in London and the landscape paintings of Wyoming, there is a stark contrast in regard to many aspects. Use of color is one of the most obvious, so is the change of technique. But when looking at how Werner came from his etchings to his paintings and keeping in mind that light acts as compass for his work, everything seems very clear and makes perfect sense. In 1997 Werner moved to Argentina with his family, arriving at a place where darkness is overwhelmed by light. He remembers having to wear sunglasses all the time because the light was so strong, something very new to a man who had been living in places like England and Belgium. Suddenly all the images and surroundings had taken on different colors, and gained an intensity, so that he felt that etching was not what he needed to express his impressions anymore, he needed color, he needed more space. Thus he started using ( colour) pencils, just to find out that this wasn’t enough either, he needed real paint, canvas, and a new form of expressing all the new images he absorbed every day.
It was at this time that he started developing his style of landscape painting, which has formed the major part of his work in recent years. The combination of abstract composition and realistic execution creates images that have a living quality much like seeing a place with one’s own eyes and yet giving a sense of personal emotion and dialogue between the landscape and the viewer. There is also a very special sharpness to the flow of colour and light, which pays respect to all the different forms and shapes that make up the landscape, as if expressing the importance of every part, not just the painting as a whole. Therefore, the viewer can enjoy several dimensions within the painting, giving it a perspective that is not static but transforms itself according to where the viewer stands and how far or close he stands. It is this life within the painting that effectively tells the story of that very moment in which Werner looked around and realized that this was going to become a painting.Seeing how the change in environment brought an adaptation in technique and style, one can also recognize the difference in content. In his early days as a student in Brussels, Werner started studying illustration, bringing narratives to life, narratives he made up or composed from different situations he encountered around him. This method for creating images of ideas and events he collected in his mind naturally influenced his work, resulting in the etchings from the London period. We can clearly see that the fantastic scenes and stories show strong elements of his work as an illustrator, and therefore develop a content that lives through his imagination. Moving to Argentina, the content starts to develop much more of a stronger emphasis on external influences with new environments and impressions, developing the need to express these images in a new way. Werner says that etching is a medium in which he can express ideas and stories out of his imagination, but painting is a medium, which he uses to express images he sees in nature and in the world around him. Painting also enables the use of colors in a more immediate way, a progressive building of a landscape. It is very impressive to see how Werner can exploit these two techniques to achieve such a strong sense of light and darkness, as well as the expression of emotional and material landscapes.
After six years in Argentina, Werner moved to the United States.
Since he was a little boy he has been fascinated with the Wild West and coming to the U.S. gave him the opportunity to live his dream and explore the places where Indians and Cowboys became legends.
The interaction between content and technique points out the different environments and stages of the artist’s life, but the constant process of analyzing and using light to express these contents and images, create a body of work that stands firmly as a whole. Looking at the evolution of Werner’s work, one can see two distinct techniques, with two distinct content treatments, but it seems wrong to separate one from the other. The etchings, as well as the paintings are inevitably linked together by the fascination for light, and how light defines an image.
GOING SOLO ( Extract from an article by Angela Di Bello )
Max Werner was born in Belgium, where days are short and light is sparse. His education took him to the French part of the country after which he traveled to London where he studied Fine Art at the Byam Shaw School of Art and the Slade School of Art where he would eventually teach etching at both schools. Max has traveled extensively throughout the British Isles, Europe, and South America; he lived for 6 years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and eventually settled down in Wyoming in the United States. While in the US his passion for horseback riding in the Western part of this great country took hold. All his travels contributed to a greater understanding of the landscape and his love of space and light.
To many, Max is classified as a realist; however, there is such a strong enigmatic element overshadowing his magnificently executed landscapes. The overshadowing might be as a result of the fact that Max is not a en plein air painter; rather, he will oftentimes create sketches and take photos during his passion sport, horseback riding, on, for instance, the trail in the mountainous open plains of Argentina, and consistently throughout the West in the US. He will turn and churn memories and experiences along with sketches until weeks later, in his studio, he begins to recall the intense emotion of that wide open landscape. Max loves the reflective observation, whether sitting in a pub sketching people or on the trail. His love of surrealism gives his work an edge that one might not see in the works of realist painter. Max’s paintings allow us the experience of peeking inside the mind of an accomplished painter whose understanding of light, space and juxtaposition of form is critical to the creation of works that are a slight step away from realism. As we all know, most of life is surreal because of the part that memory plays in our lives. Nothing can ever be truly remembered as it was first experienced; what we remember is filtered through time and reflection over and over again until the illusive memory becomes yet another reality. The fine line is what we experience in Werner’s paintings.