The Certainty of Ungainliness
Text by Tilo Schulz

It is difficult not to reflect on Viola Bittl’s paintings. At the same time, they seem to defy reproduction before our mind’s eye, eluding our grasp far too quickly when they are out of sight, leading us all too easily into the trap of describing the form. Yet that is precisely where her paintings begin—with form. And this form, whether curved or angular, conducts itself in a certain manner in the painting. Surfaces are stacked (or dropped?) to form a massif; compressed, cut-off ovals plunge into one another or assemble as a figure. Bittl’s handling of forms is multifarious, precise, and surprising, never arbitrary, and by no means out to dazzle. Her pictorial statements radiate an almost frightening awareness of what is to be negotiated. A painter is at work here who knows what she is doing but does not necessarily have to show it.

It is because of this pleasant restraint that we find ourselves returning to her works again and again. Far from hubbub and commotion, what we encounter there is intense conversation ever ready to continue. Anytime and anyplace. Bittl’s paintings are convinced of themselves, knowing, and stand apart from short-lived trends. They manifest themselves as sated painting with the courage to exhibit a certain ungainliness. Boundaries break, zones of colour seem not to find definitive shape, brushstrokes extend a bit too far, edges of underlying motifs break through and interfere. These sideshows of imperfection testify to an approach to painting found in the work of such artists as Suzan Frecon, Stanley Whitney, and Gary Stephan. They keep the act of painting alive, visible, reconstructable. Bittl’s painting is pre retouching, pre cosmetic surgery. It shows the world (painting) as it really is, with all its scars, imperfections, and residues in the covered layers. In the process, her gaze is always slightly shifted, with a predilection for the off side.

Translation Dt.-Engl.: Judith Rosenthal

[Text from the catalogue „Jetzt! Junge Malerei in Deutschland“, Hirmer Verlag, 2019, on the occasion of the exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Museum Wiesbaden, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Deichtorhallen Hamburg]