"To Paint Tulips was a Provocation" - the exhibition "Pure Pleasure" by Reinhard Voigt

Reinhard Voigt (1940, born in Berlin) is a German artist who - as the Neues Museum Nürnberg, Kunst und Design tells us - has worked over fifty years as a largely unknown artist. 

Every (!) picture of him is screened (if that is the correct word) - pixel for pixel. 

I was instantly reminded of the first computer games like Super Mario (which I never played). When Super Marion was invented in 1985, Voigt was 45 years old. The Museum writes: 

"But at the beginning of his painting the pixels of digital pictures were still unknown." (translation by me) 

The exhibition presents round about 60 pictures - and some show flowers. 

Tulips II (1969)
Voigt loves plants, and he said: "To paint tulips was a provocation" because in the 1970 art should have been political. 

Yet he unperturbed painted beauty and colours. 

Instantly I was reminded of a time in my life when I, starting in 1985 for about three years, did a lot of cross stitch - many, many very beautiful works (but is it art?) - which was complicated because I worked without an imprint on the embroidery canvas - I counted every stitch! Doing that created a sort of "protecting stillness" in my brain - it gave me the feeling of order in a very unstructured time. 

I never did cross-stitch later again. 

And I was right (the joy of having guessed right!): Reinhard Voigt admitted that he admired the cross stitch works his mother had produced. 

In the last years he cooperated with Albert Kriemler, chief designer of the fashion label Akris.  (To be honest: I would not wear that pant suit if you give it to me as a gift - though some shawls were nice).