The End of Things – Das Ende der Dinge

Things used to be easy. In the general scope of things, there seemed to be two types of artists: those who worked the concept, and those who worked the material. Only a few lucky ones, magically, could work both. Nowadays we want one to flow naturally into the other, so that material issues can become conceptual ones and vice versa.

So. Stefan Fuchs decided to end things with figuration. It was a decision made in equal parts, in favor of the paintings and the artist himself – to enable both of them to grow exponentially. Being less of a craftsman, more of a conversationalist. Rather than illustrating an idea on the canvas, from now on, he would work the canvas from the inside out. In a constant wrestle with the work as his opposite, build each painting weave by weave, layer by layer. Clawing himself out of the weeds, instead of moving down from the big picture to the details.  

His usual cut up, woven canvas would no longer serve as a mere frame, but as a smoothed out silvery surface to create his paintings on. Interestingly, he decided to build them up by drawing – onto a foil adhered to the canvas, which he’d partly cut away to apply layers of paint on top – not like a painter but like a builder that spreads out cement on a wall. By doing this over and over again, he’d slowly construct a relief of paint and colors and shapes. Brick upon brick, the painting would be constructed on the go, hardly anything planned ahead except maybe for a rudimentary pencilled sketch. The true work would happen on the canvas, when the painting would start to reveal itself.

‘Das Ende der Dinge’ showcases four smaller and three larger scale works. The three larger paintings are a continuation of the smaller works.  Elements that already occurred on the small canvases in 2024, re-enter the bigger stage in multitude in 2025. Stefan Fuchs stays within his usual muted color palette, but re-mixes motifs, shapes, and gestures. What seems to be quite simple small, becomes complex on the bigger canvases, patterns become fillers become backgrounds become shapes, only to be covered by yet another layer in a next step. You see the need to energise and vitalise certain parts over and over again, until the painting is done. 

All of them carry the same supertitle ‘Bildmaschinen’ – which references not only Stefan Fuchs’ interest in technical machines – the smaller ones look like cross sections of heavy machinery – but also the idea of the painting, the artist and his surroundings being an all encompassing ‘Image Machine’. 

Everything is, can contribute to, and can become painting: the act of schlepping up coal from the basement, your day job at the props department at the opera, going for a walk with the dog, buying paint at the painting store, kissing your partner goodnight at the end of a long day. Peter Handke put it like this:  ‘As usual when engaged in literary work, I am alienated from myself and transformed into an object, a remembering and formulating machine.’ I imagine it feels similar when Stefan and the work ‚wrestle’ with each other, both remembering their past and imagining the future to be made together. They become two of many parts of the machine.

Michaela Schweighofer
January, 2025