JENS KAEUMLE
Golden Mind, 2020 oil paint, linseed oil, gold foil, paper, cardboard 17 x 22 inches Artwork: Jens Kaeumle; Photography: Robert Cooper
The Cotton Field, 2018 oil paint, wax, linseed oil, ink, charcoal, burlap, printing ink 72 x 108 inches Artwork: Jens Kaeumle; Photography: Robert Cooper
Betty, Painting time, portrait 9, 2015 wax, linseed oil, oil paint on wooden frame 18 x 22 inches Artwork: Jens Kaeumle; Photography: Robert Cooper
The Bike, 2022 oil paint, wax, linseed oil, printing ink, ink, charcoal, gold foil, burlap 40 x 40 inches Artwork: Jens Kaeumle; Photography: Robert Cooper
He strictly fights against all forms of racism, sexual bias, thought control, language manipulation and distortion of history, the struggle between appearance, reality, truth and lie.
About
Born into post-war Germany, Jens Kaeumle’s early years were formed through the eyes of a generation sharing and grappling with the aftermath of the Holocaust in all its horrors. Taught under the absolute mantra of “Never Again,” with its commitment to banishing the stigmata of totalitarian philosophies, Kaeumle developed his creative skills and interests in an epoch of free speech and open artistic dialogue. Kaeumle internalized this opportunity, dedicating his work to open-minded exchange, artistic innovation, diversity, free speech, and the belief in kindness toward all forms of life.
Kaeumle acknowledges his antecedents. From Victor Hugo, Anselm Kiefer, and Francis Bacon to Goya, Otto Dix, Joseph Beuys, and German romanticism, Kaeumle combines their passion for resonance with his matter-of-fact directness, combining emotion and allegory with familiarity and frankness. Whether exploring history, philosophy, appearance, or truth, Kaeumle combines the organicism of the natural world with the familiarity of pattern language and texture.
He strictly fights against all forms of racism, sexual bias, thought control, language manipulation and distortion of history, the struggle between, appearance, reality, truth and lie. Kaeumle has his perspective based on longstanding historic contexts, philosophies and thinking. Feeling begets expression, then gestures beget surfaces where ambiguousness and ghostliness is as direct an assertion as are the iconic and the architectural. Against this naturalism, Kaeumle is also deeply intrigued by stained-glass windows, arches, icons and religious symbolism as he is by ruins, erosion, and the human temperament. Add in his frequent use of the colour gold, his emphasis on wax, burlap, and linseed oil as materials, and how portraits and faces are integral to his visual language, and you begin to understand his emphasis on the “Faust’sche” conundrum expressed in the dichotomies of godly and worldly inherent in us all.
Kaeumle is, at his core, a painter of the sublime, an explorer of the abyss, a chronicler of human trauma, longing, and loss. Born from a need to simultaneously remember yet instantaneously and recurringly forget, his works map the fragmentary natures of self, being, connection, and belonging. Today, enigmatic large-scale works are provocations, encouraging new readings of universal memories, challenging traditional assumptions with imaginative explorations.
Jens Kaeumle
Born in Leonberg, Germany, Jens Kaeumle took art classes from an early age. His formal art education began at 18, when he enrolled at Hamburg Armgartstrasse, Fachhochschule für Gestaltung. He furthermore studied under the renowned painters Bettina Kresslein and Bernd Mack, as well as sculptor Max Schmitz. Kaeumle undertook an MFA at the Royal College of Art, London, where his creative explorations led from painting and sculpture to fashion and a persistent exploration of the human body. Initially primarily a painter and illustrator, over the course of his career Kaeumle has expanded his practice to include fashion, sculpture, mixed media collage, and time-based media. Having travelled and lived extensively across Europe and the United States, today Kaeumle lives and works between Savannah, Georgia, and Paris, France.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Photography: Robert Cooper