I N F O
cv
1978:
art school Nürnberg, Germany
1994-97:
advanced training for artists (focus on art pedagogy with adults and children) at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin
1996-1998:
studies of media design at the L4 - Institut for New Media, Berlin (degreed media designer)
1998:
co-founding of multimedia agency bottled fish GbR
1990:
teaching media design at the L4 - Institut for New Media, Berlin
currently living in Berlin, Germany
editions of all paintings and photographies available
in fine art print
on 310 g heavy museum quality vat paper,
each edition limited to 25 copies.
prints in 3 sizes:
40 x 40 cm
80 x 80 cm
150 x 150 cm
︎ use contact form
︎ robertfaeth@icloud.com
in fine art print
on 310 g heavy museum quality vat paper,
each edition limited to 25 copies.
prints in 3 sizes:
40 x 40 cm
80 x 80 cm
150 x 150 cm
︎ use contact form
︎ robertfaeth@icloud.com
Robert Faeth, born 1955 in Aschaffenburg, Germany, studied Graphic Design at the Fachhochschule in Nürnberg, had an advanced art pedagogy training for artists (focus on adults and children) at the HdK Berlin (Hochschule der Künste, Berlin). He studied media design (degreed media designer)) at L-4 Institute for New Media, Berlin, co-founded the media agency bottled fish and lectured media design at L-4 Institute for New Media, Berlin from 1999 to 2002.
He focuses on painting and for this increasingly uses digital means. He also works in photography and video.
Besides the classical play of color, form and composition his artistic interest focuses on the small, at a fleeting glance not easily noticed details of our world: the textures, structures, reflections, the self-similarities. He increasingly works in thematic series and variations.
All of the here shown paintings are digital paintings, printed on heavy duty aquarell paper in museum quality and only available in limited editions.
Five major themes run throughout his work: LIFE - BODY - SPACES - MIND - VARIATIONS
LIFE
The fascination with life, the incredible diversity, the richness of all things living, the playful structures, the abundant textures, the complexity which arises out of a simple basic form like the scale of a fish, the eye of an insect, the feather of a bird, the densely woven thread of a cocoon, the self-similariness on microscopic and macroscopic scale, the resulting beauty.
- L i f e I s a F i s h
- C h r o m o s o m o s
- I n s e c t o i d s
- F e a t h e r s
- C o c o o n s
BODY
The fascination with the human body and its parts. The hands, the feet, the fingers, the eyes. And the protecting clothing. They all tell their own specific stories.
- I r i s
- F i n g e r s
- H a n d s
- F e e t
- S h i r t f r o n t s
SPACES
The spaces, the rooms, the lands and planes, the imaginary realms we occupy, inhabit, populate, live and die in.
- R o o m s
The natural habitat of troglodytic man, the physical rooms and the rooms of the mind that he inhabits, in which he acts, reacts, communicates, lives and dies.
- W i n d o w s
Windows are an opening where two separate views coexist. They are an important connection between the outside and the inside, real or imaginary. Windows work at an existential and philosophical level, they frame views or reflect them. Most of times the staring out of a window is not to find out what is going on outside. It is about what is going on inside our minds.
- P a s s a g e s
Journeys, passages, wanderings, transitions, have always been an important, effective and necessary catalyst for the maturation of the human mind. This series is related to Crossings and Sails.
- P l a n e s
The mental planes, the realm of ideas we live in and follow or reject.
- P e a r l y G a t e s
A compositional play with the idea of the heavenly Pearly Gates.
MIND
The engagement with the fascinating world of the mind: literature, poetry, music, spirituality, sexuality, religion.
A key attribute of the mind is that it is a private sphere to which no one but the owner has access. Our mind is both creator and prison.
- B r a i n s
The brain, seat of consciousness, of thought, emotion, cognition and (maybe even) of the Self. A fascinating biological construct and a remarkable evolutionary achievement.
This series evolved out of the study of anatomical drawings of the human brain.
- B o n e s
He is so thin, hardly there at all, just a scant arrangement of bones under the blanket (John Banville, ’The Infinities’)...Bones are a fascinating reminder on our mortality and are physical remainders and proof of a life once lived.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- G h o s t s
This series deals with the “Bones of the Mind”, the spiritual remainders of a life, which may or may not weave through our daily life, permeating places, houses, rooms, buildings and thoughts.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- R e s o n a n c e
Resonance, the consonance, the unison, the synchronization, is at work at almost every level of our known (inanimate /animated) world. It is an important element of communication and eases and enables the attunement and the creation of community, commonality and understanding.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- 1 3 W a y s o f L o o k i n g a t a B l a c k b i r d
. . . Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird . . .
(Wallace Stevens)
This is a homage to the great American poet Steven Wallace and his poem by the same title.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- C r o s s e s
The cross, a symbol of violence, suffering, sorrow, but also of forgiveness, love and redemption.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- C r o s s i n g s
As in Passages and Sails the theme here is the passage, the crossing, the turning point, the clashing of contradictory principles which might lead to a meaningful experience.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- S a i l s
The passage, the sailing across unknown waters, the journeying, the search for novelty, the voyage. This series is related to Crossings and Passages.
- . . . h e r e c a l l s h i s s u r p r i s e . . .
. . . I sing the body electric,
The armies of those I love engirth me
and I engirth them . . .
(Walt Whitman)
A small erotic yet spiritual endeavor.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- A M u r d e r o f A n g e l s
A variation on the Pearly Gates. A play on the English word for a gathering of crows (a murder of crows).
VARIATIONS
A variation is a different form of something, a variant, a transformation of the melody or the theme. Diversity, evolution and preservation of life only become possible in a series of variations. A flower, a landscape, an object is each a unique manifestation of the category flower, landscape or object. It is the viewer who lets the category become an individual as he recognizes the uniqueness.
Variations remind us of time’s flow, there is a narrative element in variations.
- B l a u M i l c h
A compositional play.
- N i c h e s M o n o
A compositional play with a single niche (color field).
- N i c h e s D u o
A compositional play with two niches (color fields).
- 2 T i m e s
A compositional play with two colored fields.
- F l u g z e u g V a r i a t i o n e n
A series about moving forward and through air as planes do.
It is also about painting onto the surface of the earth fleeting shadows, these strange things that hover between being and non-being. What we really perceive when we see a shadow is an absence.
- H e l i c o p t u s
A series about moving forward and through air as helicopters do.
- P r o p u l s i o n
A series about moving forward and through water with the aid of propellers.
- W a l k i n g S h a d o w s
. . . life is but a walking shadow,
a poor player that struts and frets
his hour upon the stage,
and then is heard no more. . .
(William Shakespeare, Macbeth)
A shadow is a strange fleeting thing that hovers between being and non-being. What we really perceive when we see a shadow is an absence.
- L a m p V a r i a t i o n s
15 paintings of of one and the same lamp in different illuminations and moods.
- W i n d o w V a r i a t i a n o n s
12 paintings of one and the same view, each painting representing two hours of the day.
- C o n g r a t
A series on floriography - flowers do talk.
This series started out, from top to bottom, in 2018 and recently (2021) was taken up again. It is the latest so far in the artistic endeavour, incorporating written text as yet another level of meaning, lending insubstantiality and transcendency to the journey.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- C r o s s e s
The cross, a symbol of violence, suffering, sorrow, but also of forgiveness, love and redemption.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
He focuses on painting and for this increasingly uses digital means. He also works in photography and video.
Besides the classical play of color, form and composition his artistic interest focuses on the small, at a fleeting glance not easily noticed details of our world: the textures, structures, reflections, the self-similarities. He increasingly works in thematic series and variations.
All of the here shown paintings are digital paintings, printed on heavy duty aquarell paper in museum quality and only available in limited editions.
Five major themes run throughout his work: LIFE - BODY - SPACES - MIND - VARIATIONS
LIFE
The fascination with life, the incredible diversity, the richness of all things living, the playful structures, the abundant textures, the complexity which arises out of a simple basic form like the scale of a fish, the eye of an insect, the feather of a bird, the densely woven thread of a cocoon, the self-similariness on microscopic and macroscopic scale, the resulting beauty.
- L i f e I s a F i s h
- C h r o m o s o m o s
- I n s e c t o i d s
- F e a t h e r s
- C o c o o n s
BODY
The fascination with the human body and its parts. The hands, the feet, the fingers, the eyes. And the protecting clothing. They all tell their own specific stories.
- I r i s
- F i n g e r s
- H a n d s
- F e e t
- S h i r t f r o n t s
SPACES
The spaces, the rooms, the lands and planes, the imaginary realms we occupy, inhabit, populate, live and die in.
- R o o m s
The natural habitat of troglodytic man, the physical rooms and the rooms of the mind that he inhabits, in which he acts, reacts, communicates, lives and dies.
- W i n d o w s
Windows are an opening where two separate views coexist. They are an important connection between the outside and the inside, real or imaginary. Windows work at an existential and philosophical level, they frame views or reflect them. Most of times the staring out of a window is not to find out what is going on outside. It is about what is going on inside our minds.
- P a s s a g e s
Journeys, passages, wanderings, transitions, have always been an important, effective and necessary catalyst for the maturation of the human mind. This series is related to Crossings and Sails.
- P l a n e s
The mental planes, the realm of ideas we live in and follow or reject.
- P e a r l y G a t e s
A compositional play with the idea of the heavenly Pearly Gates.
MIND
The engagement with the fascinating world of the mind: literature, poetry, music, spirituality, sexuality, religion.
A key attribute of the mind is that it is a private sphere to which no one but the owner has access. Our mind is both creator and prison.
- B r a i n s
The brain, seat of consciousness, of thought, emotion, cognition and (maybe even) of the Self. A fascinating biological construct and a remarkable evolutionary achievement.
This series evolved out of the study of anatomical drawings of the human brain.
- B o n e s
He is so thin, hardly there at all, just a scant arrangement of bones under the blanket (John Banville, ’The Infinities’)...Bones are a fascinating reminder on our mortality and are physical remainders and proof of a life once lived.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- G h o s t s
This series deals with the “Bones of the Mind”, the spiritual remainders of a life, which may or may not weave through our daily life, permeating places, houses, rooms, buildings and thoughts.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- R e s o n a n c e
Resonance, the consonance, the unison, the synchronization, is at work at almost every level of our known (inanimate /animated) world. It is an important element of communication and eases and enables the attunement and the creation of community, commonality and understanding.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- 1 3 W a y s o f L o o k i n g a t a B l a c k b i r d
. . . Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird . . .
(Wallace Stevens)
This is a homage to the great American poet Steven Wallace and his poem by the same title.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- C r o s s e s
The cross, a symbol of violence, suffering, sorrow, but also of forgiveness, love and redemption.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- C r o s s i n g s
As in Passages and Sails the theme here is the passage, the crossing, the turning point, the clashing of contradictory principles which might lead to a meaningful experience.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- S a i l s
The passage, the sailing across unknown waters, the journeying, the search for novelty, the voyage. This series is related to Crossings and Passages.
- . . . h e r e c a l l s h i s s u r p r i s e . . .
. . . I sing the body electric,
The armies of those I love engirth me
and I engirth them . . .
(Walt Whitman)
A small erotic yet spiritual endeavor.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- A M u r d e r o f A n g e l s
A variation on the Pearly Gates. A play on the English word for a gathering of crows (a murder of crows).
VARIATIONS
A variation is a different form of something, a variant, a transformation of the melody or the theme. Diversity, evolution and preservation of life only become possible in a series of variations. A flower, a landscape, an object is each a unique manifestation of the category flower, landscape or object. It is the viewer who lets the category become an individual as he recognizes the uniqueness.
Variations remind us of time’s flow, there is a narrative element in variations.
- B l a u M i l c h
A compositional play.
- N i c h e s M o n o
A compositional play with a single niche (color field).
- N i c h e s D u o
A compositional play with two niches (color fields).
- 2 T i m e s
A compositional play with two colored fields.
- F l u g z e u g V a r i a t i o n e n
A series about moving forward and through air as planes do.
It is also about painting onto the surface of the earth fleeting shadows, these strange things that hover between being and non-being. What we really perceive when we see a shadow is an absence.
- H e l i c o p t u s
A series about moving forward and through air as helicopters do.
- P r o p u l s i o n
A series about moving forward and through water with the aid of propellers.
- W a l k i n g S h a d o w s
. . . life is but a walking shadow,
a poor player that struts and frets
his hour upon the stage,
and then is heard no more. . .
(William Shakespeare, Macbeth)
A shadow is a strange fleeting thing that hovers between being and non-being. What we really perceive when we see a shadow is an absence.
- L a m p V a r i a t i o n s
15 paintings of of one and the same lamp in different illuminations and moods.
- W i n d o w V a r i a t i a n o n s
12 paintings of one and the same view, each painting representing two hours of the day.
- C o n g r a t
A series on floriography - flowers do talk.
This series started out, from top to bottom, in 2018 and recently (2021) was taken up again. It is the latest so far in the artistic endeavour, incorporating written text as yet another level of meaning, lending insubstantiality and transcendency to the journey.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.
- C r o s s e s
The cross, a symbol of violence, suffering, sorrow, but also of forgiveness, love and redemption.
Text is being used as a compositional, creative design element that additionally carries information, emotion and narrative.