Katinka Mann
Perception of Space
February 9 – March 24, 2023
Opening: Thursday, February 9, 6 – 8 pm
Extended to April 18
Hours: Tue-Fri 12-5 pm
In Katinka's universe, her forms are clear, and the color illuminates the spiritual, minimalistic simplicity of her message. The tonalities of the aluminum and white pieces are sober. Katinka's persona enlightened her exchanges with others. We who knew her were familiarized with her perceptual awareness of making art and her unquestionable mission of goodwill and kindness. This is the example that shines in our memory. Her attitude and awareness produced a body of work that sets the tone for the humanitarian dedication we call art. - Greg Kwiatek
Katinka Mann (1925–2022) was deeply modern in her exploration of form, color, and light. This modernity was linked to her optimism and generosity of spirit. She approved of the flatness of minimalist painting and was a student of Taoism, finding balance in opposites and calmness in paradox. She defined her own space with exuberant colors and shapes that were neither rational nor simply gestural. Her forms feel whole and friendly but are often cut through by sharp trapezoids, a reminder of life’s contradictions. She asked us to look carefully at the light and color between and behind her pieces, to see the subject, and to see ourselves seeing the world we inhabit.
Mann explored many media in her career starting from the 1960s until her death at the age of 97. She had been a member of the EFA Studio Program since 2009, creating and showing ambitious work until the very end. In 2022 she participated in Eight Lives, a group show at EFA, and was included in Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936 – Present at the LSU Museum of Art. Her work is in the collection of numerous museums including The Brooklyn Museum, Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum, MoMA, and National Museum of American Art.
Katina's artistic trajectory started with the medium of oil painting and the genre of landscape art. She then moved on to printmaking and papermaking, where she developed an interest in geometric forms. The tactics of folding, cutting, and collaging contrasting elements are intrinsic to her methodology and are manifest in all her work. In the 1980s and 1990s, she created a significant body of work with a large format Polaroid camera, colored lights, and constructed sets. These images, with their planes of colors, openings, and shadows, challenge one’s perception of space and material. They are reminiscent of Barbara Kasten’s photographs but more opaque and abstract. From these prints, she developed 3-dimensional photo works which were a stepping stone to her later emblematic metal constructions.
The recent works from 2010 on are painted aluminum and labeled flattened sculptural paintings. They can read as pop in their rounded creatureliness, but Katinka’s goal was more existential. She wanted to expand the perceptual awareness of the viewer. They are painted glossy to reflect the space and the viewers around them. To express her vision of wholeness within contradiction, she chose contrasting elements such as organic shapes and mechanical production, round outside, angular inside, flatness, and depth. Stripped of artifice but full of life, Katinka Mann’s work brings us joy as we celebrate her life and work.
Deric Carner
CONTACT: Deric@efanyc.org
Over There, 38"W x 28"H x 2"D, Painted Aluminum, Flattened Sculptural Painting, 2014