105 x feather drawings for Oslo
First and foremost, I am, at least I think so, or I am, as an artist since my earliest childhood, an obsessed, practiced and trained observer: DRAWER. For me, the human being, the being, is at the center of my interest. Man is the craziest animal in the universe. An insatiable curiosity drives me to fabulate, invent and create with the line. "I am God" - in the same way as everyone else! I create something new, combine, dissect, shape, put it together differently or anew. And almost always without intention. If I had known what I was doing at any given time, if the result had already been clear in my head, I would have lost the drive to continue. I see drawing as an independent form of art. Immediate, from the heart, from the soul screaming, without dirty stains to cover. The drawing never lies, it always allows the underlying to come to light, as if with X-ray vision. Lines, which may be erroneous, I leave, who knows what is right and what is wrong.
Art history has great artists. And they have all long since been swallowed by the depths of the sea, and drowned in the fjords.
Yes, only their Nordic world champion, in the zenith of the shining star, in the Nordic cross, who screwed self-doubters to the ship's plank tied to the cross. Your Munch, for me the last great artist. After that, nothing came. Only now: A John.
Holger John (b. 1960) was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden under Gerhard Kettner and Ralf Kerbach. In the years 1995-2002, John worked as personal assistant to Jörg Immendorff. Alongside his own work as an artist, Holger John has been behind a number of exhibitions and projects at the Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden in collaboration with Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz and Jörg Immendorf. He has also collaborated with the German band Rammstein. This is Holger John's first exhibition in Norway.
