The pictures, sometimes just "thrown down" with a few strokes, but mostly scenes worked out with the utmost care and attention to detail, unfold an effect that intoxicates the viewer. Haunted and dreamlike figures, whether freely invented or quoted, attract the eye, provoke thought or amuse when unexpected clichés are turned on their head or "taken at their word". Holger ]ohn belongs to that rare group of artists on the border between fine art and literature. One is reminded of Alfred Kubin - also someone who had a kindred spirit with Kafka. Where ]ohn's drawings are not themselves literary quotations, he easily establishes a connection with a dropped sentence, sometimes with just one word. Whether superficially funny or profoundly evil - one is always tempted to look for a hidden underlying meaning. But even where ]ohn makes bitter, almost caustic criticism of the times, there are traces of subtle humour, of his special sense of the absurd.
It is hardly surprising that in such a world, eroticism is also given its rightful place. And this as a matter of course with the willingness to provoke - not least about the areas of our lives from which we have excluded it, be it for cultural, religious or other reasons. But even the viewer who feels provoked will hardly be able to escape the fascination of these countless facets of sparkling fantasy worlds. With their perfected technique and highly personal artistic mastery, Holger ]ohn's drawings are among the most colourful ever put down on paper in black and white.
Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue text by Hans-Gerd Koch (publicist, literary scholar and Kafka editor)
Opening on Friday, 26 March 2004 at 8 pm.
The artist was present.
