Schwarzwasser

In the Schwarzwasser series (from 2013 onward), for example—which the artist describes as “a kind of final repository for heavily action-contaminated, unresolved material”—various leftover materials bearing traces of previous work are directly embedded into wet paper coated with black high-gloss lacquer. During the slow drying process, the lacquer permeates both the support paper and the inserted elements, causing everything to merge within the reflective surface. The vertically oriented sheets are structured by a few horizontal ridges that undulate across the surface, created beforehand by lines of water applied to the paper. Once dried, the works become veritable light traps. Earlier traces of artistic activity appear to float on and beneath the lacquer, as if suspended in murky water.

In dialogue with this series stands the horizontal body of work Weisswasser (2018–2020). Here, vertical ridges divide the white sheets, into which only occasional materials and drawings have been embedded.

From: Harald Kröner und das Ohne-Tun des überzeugten Zeichners, Martina Köppel-Yang, Paris, June 2021. More