The wealth and variety of these pictures, their colorful chromaticity, the bustle of most diverse forms and structures – all this might conceal that we are presented with a very smart, considerate kind of painting. The impulsiveness, even chaos, that almost attacks the beholder at first sight is, on a second view, steered in well organized structures; again and again the splittered field is organized by superordinate large forms. This principle of organization is most visible in constructivist-minimanlist shapes to be found all over the canvas; some of the recent large formats are built upon diagonals as a basic structure.

Forster Herchenbach reaches into the horn of plenty of modern art, filled to bursting, he grabs whatever he needs and arranges everything in a large collage. We find traces of Kandinsky, Klee and Picasso, discover pop art’s comic-like shapes; Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie-Woogie crosses our mind just as well as jazz-inspired paintings from the 1930s and 1940s by the American Stuart Davis, amplifyed with a dash Jackson Pollock. An extensive series of smaller works is based on diversity, it rejects completely the principle of stylistic unity.

John Cage is a major influence, his musicality as well as his “composed” void and silence, making everyday sounds heard. In a similar way Forster Herchenbach’s canvases are empty panels, mirroring – the city of Berlin. Here we find the hustle and bustle, the varieties, contradictions, the makeshift and tentative character, the rhythm and optimism of a metropolis that underwent a radical change: from a walled-in city to the hip center of a new youth movement.

And Forster Herchenbach, grown up in the placid Black Forest (yet confronted since his early youth with the avantgarde collection Grässlin) –  Forster is in the thick of things. He works as a bartender in a hip club; as a drummer he has already launched three bands (Cage, too, founded a percussionist group), and he is among the organizers of the art festivel “48 hours Neukölln”, a forum for all the artistic and human richness of this trendy district. That bustles with energy, follows the pulse and dynamics of life. Herchenbach’s paintings are the essence of this scenery – recorded with  the necessary distance of the keen observer.

In his paintings, the artist says without ruffle or excitement, each form has its own validity. Chance and planning, chaos and order, intuition and structure: here these contradictions are reconciled in a new, vigorous unity.

Biography

Biography

1982	born in St. Georgen, Black Forest
2002	moves to Berlin
2003	begins to study visual arts, University of Potsdam
2011	finishes his studies with Prof. Meike Aissen-Crewett
2011/12	teacher in Berlin-Spandau
2012	cancels his activities as a teacher, works with Zuhause e.V. theatre group
since 2013	organizes “48 hours Neukölln” at Zuhause e.V., Neckarhöfe, Klunkerkranich, Fuchs und Elster

Exhibitions

2016	Wenn die Notwendigkeit besteht, Scandic Hotel Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (solo show) Temporäre Kunsthalle Neukölln, Klunkerkranich, Berlin Cross Section 1, Busche, Berlin Global Forests, Kundo, St. Georgen, Black Forest
2015	Blond und Blond Contemporary, Berlin Rette sich wer Kunst, 48 Stunden Neukölln, Berlin Letschebach Project, Istanbul

2014	Lit golden sky, Blond und Blond Contemporary, Berlin (solo show) 48 hours Neukölln, Berlin
2013	48 hours Neukölln, Berlin Destruction, structure, chance, Raum für drastische Maßnahmen, Berlin Not only mirrored – when statues come to live, art (in) Karlsruhe
2012	Transform, 48 Hours Neukölln, Berlin
2011	Fatso Forgotso, Kulturzentrum ZUHAUSE e.V., Berlin 48 Hours Neukölln, Kulturzentrum ZUHAUSE e.V.
2010	Museum Fluxus Plus, Potsdam
2009	Dynamism, rhythm and motion, Ticket-Galerie Nikolaisaal, Potsdam  Transformationen II, Altes Rathaus, Potsdam
2007	Skulptur/Plastik, Campus Griebnitzsee, Potsdam