Philipp Hennevogl "HOCH - Paradise lurks in the backyard"

Under the title "THROUGH - HIGH - FLAT - DEEP", curator Katja M. Schneider has put together an exciting program on the Unesco World Cultural Heritage "Art of Printing". This refers to the four traditional printing techniques: Through-printing (screen printing), relief printing (lino printing), planographic printing (lithography) and intaglio printing (etching). These printing techniques, which can be used artistically, are presented in their most modern form through exhibitions of current artists. Offenbach am Main has a printing history with many highlights, such as the Huguenot and Hebrew letterpress printing in the 18th century, the world's first commercial introduction of lithography in the Johann André music publishing house in 1800, André's Mozart sheet music prints from the original manuscripts available in the publishing house until the middle of the 19th century. It also includes the illegal printing of the political pamphlet "Der Hessische Landbote" by Georg Büchner (1834) by the Offenbach printer Carl Preller, the type designers at the printing company Gebr. Klingspor at the beginning of the 20th century and much more.

The last exhibition of the printing year deals with letterpress printing and is by Philipp Hennevogl.

Independence of the line, which nevertheless remains integrated into the technical treatment of the surface; this is one of the characteristics of the sometimes very large-format works by Berlin artist Philipp Hennevogl. The starting point for each work is always the photograph, which is then transformed into a linocut. Contrary to expectations, however, this does not lead to a simple realism, but the reference to reality is undermined in a striking way. Although a motif is recognizable in each work, the artist achieves a wealth of detail through the technique used, which removes it from its photographic origin and transfers it into the cut itself. This achieves an optical simultaneity, the motif is placed on the surface and thus removed from the spatial context. This technique creates exuberant patterns, structures, serial surfaces, meandering and floral lines, which drive realism out of the motif. The great registers of art history can be seen

art history: still lifes, portraits, landscapes, architecture.
Text: Sabine Flach (excerpt)