Lutz Fritsch »Die Erhabenheit der Linie«

Galerie Christian Lethert is pleased to present the exhibition »Die Erhabenheit der Linie« (»The Sublime of the Line«) by Lutz Fritsch. The reduction to the essential in dealing with line, surface, color and space characterizes the artistic work of the Cologne based sculptor, whose new room sculpture achieves an immense effect through this minimalist reduction and straightforward consistency.

Already from the entrance door you can see a shiny orange line at the end of a ceiling-high passageway.
Where this begins or ends, whether it blocks the space or allows access to the object, is not apparent from a distance. Experiencing and grasping it begins by ›walking towards it‹, but it is only when entering the room that the dimensions of the line are revealed. It quickly becomes clear that the artist creates his sculptures not in, but with the existing space.
The linear sculpture, which with its 7 m length measures almost the entire room and glows orange, lies on two filigree gray trestles. The shiny surface provokes to approach the sculpture more and more. Minimal as are the variations in form and color from which the work draws, the maximum is the effort the artist puts into the choice of materials used, the production of the paints and the attention paid to their specific surface qualities. This also applies to the other line in the room, which only comes into focus at second glance. The small red line is attached vertically to the wall as a counterpart. These dialogically interrelated elements, which convey closeness and distance, are only extended by the human being, whom the artist thinks of as a reference point, as a »walking perpendicular« (Lutz Fritsch) in the space.
A place of deep tranquility and tension-laden power is created both by the interplay of the two colored lines and their dialog and contrast to the surrounding space. The artist is never concerned with the focus on the sculpture alone, but Lutz Fritsch’s sculptures can be understood as perceptual impulses to experience our living space in a new and different way.

Over the years, the artist has created a network of lines in both public and private space that stretches from Cologne to Antarctica. In addition to the exhibition in the gallery, you can encounter some of them from mid-September in the KOLUMBA Museum in Cologne.
Even if one cannot see all the lines at the same time, one knows about the existence of the others and »[w]hoever encounters one of his plastic lines somewhere should know that he is actually encountering absolute sculpture, which results reduced from plastic and space« (Gerhard Kolberg).