In his new paintings Michael Goller
presents the viewer with the complexity and ambivalence of
this day and age. He expresses these conditions
in a modern way, applying both archaic power and artistic
verve.
What at first observation appears to be a more or less accidental
combination of colors, after looking carefully, reveals itself as a
well devised composition. The thoughtful viewer will see the
well-considered use of color and artistic skill of the artist's fully
developed creations. Sketches and studies are important preparations
for Goller, but he also gives way to spontaneity in his works. His
paintings display continuous reflection -- he concentrates on specific
ideas and themes, turns them upside down and inside out. In some cases
this is repetitive, and one can appreciate/understand this process in
his works. They are neither polished nor lifeless creations but
impulsive and impassioned paintings.
More intensive study of Goller's works reveals many
narrations.
Like a big book the paintings offer us a wealth of stories. It is a
little bit like archaeology, if we want to discover them we have to
"excavate" several layers. Adding to the interest and mystery of his
pieces are his utilization of peculiar letters –
envisioned
and included by the artist himself. Like runic characters or stone-age
signs they are scratched into the coat of paint and help us to
conceptualize almost every work. These are Goller's personal symbols
and they represent the complexity and the concurrence of
disparate events which are characteristic of our time.
Shapes and content of orchestral richness and opulence flow profusely
over the large canvases. The observer can almost compare the effects of
these types of visuals to a “horror vacui”. By
contrast,
the smaller drawings and works on paper display a much more
concentrated use of artistic elements (as is typical of chamber music)
and act as a fine counterpart to the larger creations. These
compositions are more economical, as they are reduced to few elements.
With these simpler works, another characteristic feature of a Michael
Goller creation becomes apparent: The discerning eye will see
a
conflict in the creator's artistic application. Accurate drawings with
fine lines -- mostly still-life-scenes or ancient portrait busts
-- meet side by side with gestic paint spatters, drops, and
spots
to give the works their own vibrant dynamism and rhythm.
Alexander Stoll, Annaberg 6/2006 (translation: Jeannine Helbig)
Michael Goller paints and writes, writes and paints.
Sometimes, he does it separately, often, however, he does it in one
another. He may be the most restless and forward pushing member of
those four Querschlag artists, whose self-doubts lie close together
with his lofty thoughts. His paintings are ornamental, expressive and
narrative at the same time. They mix cartoon elements with the abstract
magic of colours and want to unsettle the observer by the directness of
the contents and still remain art. A dreamer who is aware of reality,
though, associatively paraphrasing and who wants to outline his cosmos
by the means of poetry. Thus, the titles of his paintings, such as the
enslavement of the creator by redemption of mind and matter, what
appears like mazed confusion. Again and again, words und phrases are
written in the paintings that are often hard to make out, so that they
resemble hieroglyphs. Bizarre murmur of time in which perspectives are
turning, rooms get locked by colour layers, figures and animals get
stuck somewhere in the picture layers, foot kicks spread and hands
vanish. Sometimes, there appear standardised rectangles that suddenly
bring sobering reality into the creative chaos - with a different code
of communication. However, Michael Goller remains linked to Earth, as
he does it with the mouth full of chocolate cream or during the
conversation with the tea bag. There is always irony and deeper meaning
as well as poetry rather than the world hidden behind. Surely, his
paintings turn into an antipole of the coldly sentimental product
aesthetics by means of their sensory substance.
Dr. Ina Gille, art historian, Leipzig 5/2005 (translation: Peter Fischer)
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