Basic Info

Name: Karl Martin Holzhäuser
Country of Origin: DE

Description

biography and image are courtesy of Sous Les Etoiles Gallery and Elementum:
“Karl Martin Holzhäuser, b. 1944 in Germany, is one of the earliest champions of Concrete Photography. Today, Holzhäuser has returned to the roots of his chosen artistic medium, creating a new genre in the field of cameraless photography that combines the stringency of premeditated instructions with elements of calculated chance. Calling this work “Lichtmalerei” or “painting with light,” Holzhäuser works completely in the dark, following a predevised “score” of the movement of light from memory, and allowing for extemporaneous adjustments by hand.”

“Karl-Martin Holzhäuser is a photo artist who has been creating a consistent body of work since the end of the 1960s. His art is rooted in the cultures of Concrete and Constructive Art, as well as the medium of photography and its tendencies for experimentation and design. His work can be seen as an experiment in the synthesis of art and technology, reflecting the play of colors, forms, space, and time within the medium of photography.

Holzhäuser’s early works, such as Mechano optischen Untersuchungen from 1965 to 1972, demonstrate his refusal to submit to any metaphysical super-elevation and transfiguration of art. He creates a visual world that did not exist before and develops images solely from the photographic process. His icons are the result of this process, existing within the medium until they are brought to light.

Holzhäuser is constantly searching for the latent image of time through photographs that do not aim to represent or reproduce the world as it seems or is, but instead, aim to be visual. He intentionally returns to the roots of the medium, searching for the elementary in a world where fleeting moments have become a nightmare. He believes that earlier connections between a piece of art and its creation have become obsolete due to reproducibility and mass distribution. However, photography also offers the chance to produce authentic contemporary pictures that support individual and collective consciousness.

Holzhäuser’s works capture fleeting moments in a unique way, using the medium of light to do so.”