Jan Voss, Parcelles 1, 2020 © Jan Voss / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
In his Berlin studio, last May, Jan Voss produced a set of ten Parcelles, along with the following statement: “The painter is a loner in his studio, unless he leads a production team, which I do not. Therefore, not much has changed in my working approach during this lockdown. My work consists of worrying about the paper: its smoothness, its modestness and its two-dimensions bother me. I dream to add a bi-dimensionality to this medium. A sheet of paper will never measure up a block of marble, for sure; but still, a little more texture wouldn’t be that bad for it.”
Jan Voss, Parcelles 2, 2020 © Jan Voss / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
Jan Voss, Parcelles 3, 2020 © Jan Voss / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
Jan Voss, Parcelles 4, 2020 © Jan Voss / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
The easiest way to add relief and even an entire dimension to a sheet of paper would be to roll it into a ball. However, let’s bet that this ball would end up immediately in the wastebasket. I do not dream of eternity, trust me, but a little more sustainability would do me good. So then, no balls of paper. Folds perhaps, as in some paintings of the ancient times? Yes, why not. Holes, as in the slightly less remote work of an Italian master? Yes, why not. Strings too. And above all, colors that add, I hope, the dimension of pleasure.
Jan Voss, Parcelles 5, 2020 © Jan Voss / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
Jan Voss, Parcelles 6, 2020 © Jan Voss / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
Jan Voss, Parcelles 7, 2020 © Jan Voss / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
“My work consists of worrying about the paper: its smoothness, its modestness and its two-dimensions bother me”
—Jan Voss
Jan Voss, Parcelles 8, 2020 © Jan Voss / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
Jan Voss, Parcelles 9, 2020 © Jan Voss / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
Jan Voss, Parcelles 10, 2020 © Jan Voss / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
Jan Voss is a German painter best known for collaged works on canvas which incorporate rudimentary, figure-like shapes and scrawling, painted lines. He tears, crumples, and glues paper to find the image for each work rather than having a plan in mind beforehand. Voss’s work has relationships to Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and CoBrA artists like Asger Jorn. Born on October 9, 1936 in Hamburg, Germany, the artist studied at the Munich Art Academy and moved to Paris in 1960, where he has remained ever since. Today, his works are in the collections of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Museum of Fine Arts in Dunkirk, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Voss lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Jan Voss: Parcelles
July 23 – August 30, 2020 / Galerie Lelong & Co., Online Viewing Room
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