Dipl.-Phil./ Atr Historian Herbert Schönemann, Erfurt, November 2003 from Catalogue "Nice Outlooks" back The artist's search for meaning We as people are inexorably and consistently lost in the web of contemporary society and are carried on by pre-determined programs, looking for the kick among the surplus of unfathomable consumer worlds and resisting any alternatives in order to hover in the arbitrariness of being or to work vigilantly for profit. The painter and graphic artist Martin Kreim paints this world with understanding and creates open ironic humorous contrasting images in different ways by exposing situations without tying himself down thematically in any way. There is no destructive approach to his work; his pictures are rather similes for human ventures into presumed paradises where the customer is always right. In 2002 a picture of medium size was created in which Martin Kreim puts a "seer", on the roof of a house against the backdrop of a compact illuminated city, a seeker who is scanning the sky for a personal experience which will set him apart, giving him the certainty of having been there. In the picture equal weight is given to him as a black human silhouette, and to the bright tower house, except that the "seer" can see further, he has an adjustable telescope, even though the light flooding upwards lights up the sky as if it were day and distorts his view. While they deal with changing themes, many of Martin Kreim's paintings are of similar character, meeting at changing locations and he refers to his own interests in his reflection of contemporary life. His stress in on the family: people in a garden, in an open field, tourists in the landscapes of their longings. These are above all well-developed holiday destinations with good road connections for any kind of quick decampment. The physically evolving structures keep the speed of movement high in his work, exerting the full energy of colour to affirm the respective picture in its artistic finality or to keep it open in the continuing search for the true event. In all of this it is notable that not only has the theme been determined prior to the artist's actual impressions in situ, but also by the variable use of materials. This is not a kind of Expressionism which he once practised but rather it is an entirely specific method in which he makes each artistic decision in favour of the respective artistic form on his own behalf. He forms the familiar surroundings, the personal relationships out of a strong feeling of intimacy, a sensitive range of values which he regards as fundamental and he distances himself consciously for the sake of objectivity as soon as he encounters a social phenomenon. The "Red Car" from 2001, a painting of the family on their travels, "Teresa in yellow" from the same year, or the picture "Three" from 2001, as well as every other work from this private sphere highlight a diverse yet joyous world. The drama of the image in "Red Car", the colour blazing up towards the sky in "Teresa in Yellow" in which the artist's daughter is placed on the pivot-point of a large landscape or in the three-figure painting "Three", the sympathy is tangible. When Martin Kreim paints "Agnes" 2000, a woman smoking in front of a ripped poster, a work of open structures and beginnings, he is presenting a radical confrontation between energetic woman and imperfect, noisy world. The body pictures are works with the same basic attitude, an exhibition of their own pedigree bodies, an act of pure waffling self-elevation in a timid backdrop. The multi-faceted nature of the scenery, the use of graphic and topographic means makes the paintings eloquent and non transparent, surreally bustling. With "Cheerleaders", the portrayal of the cheering girls on playing fields, Martin Kreim is experimenting with the performance of the singing girls in different variations, a process as it were - as a baroque breaking out in a frenzy of glowing colours, as a nebulous creature moving in a haze as if possessing unreal reality. Following actual personal experiences in today's world of work, Martin Kreim began to paint a psychological piece of work, with an analysis of the blatant difficulties of working people who, put in a glass case, are exposed for all to see. Man and woman are confined to a very small space in their working duties, the woman breaking down first, the man losing his ability to communicate. The time is leaden. The artist is endeavouring to place this glass cell architecture into a state of suspense, the constructions which reflect one another, the windows, furniture and gadgets conspire with one another to make this a sinister place. Martin Kreim continues his precise portrayal of the state of human souls in their apparently well-ordered rooms in a garden painting which in this clear ordering of buildings, flowerbeds, flourishing appears to be placed on contaminated ground. The person stands as an apparition in front of the wall of a house and is dissolving into thin air while the building rises up silently behind him. As a contrast to this are interiors with magnificently luxurious furnishings, town landscapes of finely fluid brush strokes, forest paintings, views of vast open country, where round measuring points confront the eyes with surreal sources of confusion. The artist's motivation for work comes from things he has actually experienced, where the continual change of theme is partial. If this is holidays, then the tents, caravans, cars preside over the paintings, the landscapes of their dreams receiving encouragement from dubious guests from the land of gnomes, scurrying about until their living room has been erected, Arcadia is sparkling, conflict-free. The ever-present desire to paint optimistic paintings leads to his personal environment, be it the "test drive", the portraits of his family in the garden, going for a walk, the holiday or the horse paintings, works of high artistic achievement. The portrait "The artist himself as a mirror image", painted in 2003 conveys a very free attitude towards the self. He is mirrored in the windows of the balcony door as a dark figure, appearing on the border between threat and searching, in a mundane kitchen where we are almost forced into an awareness of the place to avoid becoming stuck in this apparently claustrophobic corridor. The confusion lingers on. Dip.-Phil./ art historian Herbert Schönemann, Erfurt
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