JIRI GEORG

DOKOUPIL

&

HARALAMPI G.

OROSCHAKOFF

The German-Czech artist Jiří Georg Dokoupil is a perfectionist. He has worked consistently for more than twenty years on the so-called soap bubble paintings. The bubbles sink onto the canvas, leaving an image when they burst due to the colour and pigments in the soapy solution. For several months now he has also used artificial diamond dust for his works, which are on view for the first time in Berlin. As a result, an astounding three-dimensional effect is created and the self-contained shapes seem to hover in front of a monochrome background, with a striking plasticity. The colours are particularly intense and even glow in the semi-darkness. In order to take a new approach to painting, Dokoupil began very early on to develop unusual new techniques, which can be applied without any use of a paintbrush or oil paint: the candle paintings are created in this way, for example, for which he uses the soot of burning candles as a “painting medium”, or the tyre paintings in which he applies the paint by rolling tyres. He has developed about 100 different techniques. As a result, a particularly broad and fascinating spectrum of artistic forms of expression has been created. He has constantly reinvented himself, experimented and worked towards perfection for as long as is needed to achieve complete mastery and singularity in the applied technique.
Dokoupil was a star painter in the 1980s. In 1979 he founded the group “Mülheimer Freiheit” in Cologne together with other artists. His participation in the documenta 7 in 1982 marked a breakthrough for him on an international level: since then he has participated in several international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale (1987/1993) and renowned museums are still presenting his works in solo exhibitions. In 2012 he was awarded the Lovis Corinth prize.

Haralampi G. Oroschakoff, born in 1955, grew up in Vienna and Cannes as the offspring of an Old Russian family. Today, he lives in Berlin, Vienna and the Côte d’Azur. In 1981 he began participating in the international art scene as a painter, drawer and author and was able to present his installations, performances, videos and paintings in prominent international institutions vey early on.
The comparative and archival exploration of the western and eastern world plays a central role in both his visual and written œuvre. For example he deals with the theme of the destruction of Constantinople by crusaders or the history of Russia in the nineteenth century. With his references to the Byzantine roots of the occidental culture he has generated, particularly in the 1980s, what has at times been a heated debate among culture-related businesses.
The Galerie Michael Haas will for the main part exhibit large format paintings from 2013, which make a strong impression in particular through their painterly presence and their at times cryptic and exotic iconography.