THE GALLERY
www.die-galerie.com
Grüneburgweg 123
60323 Frankfurt am Main
Partner gallery: Levy Galerie
Klaus Zylla
Klaus Zylla is a contemporary artist whose roots lie in surrealism, art brut, and CoBrA. The explosive artistic movement CoBrA, founded in 1948, with its uninhibited emotions, grotesque figures, and expressive representations, alongside the work of A. R. Penck, is likely to have been the most recent artistic source from which Klaus Zylla drew his inspiration.
The result of this intensive exploration of various artistic styles is a highly specific and turbulent visual world that oscillates between figuration and abstraction, drawing on various traditions but never content with mere quotation. It always serves to develop and convey Zylas's own message. His paintings feature surreal, grotesque creatures, sometimes placed statically in the picture, sometimes doing somersaults. Their facial expressions cover the entire spectrum between humor and seriousness, mockery and irony, sadness and coquetry, eroticism and chastity.
Klaus Zylla's technical skills range from fleeting brushstrokes to the finest, densest lines, from sharply defined surfaces to broad, light layers, from bright, vibrant colors to somber tones. In each creative period, Klaus Zylla works with literature and writing in his paintings, which he not only interprets in terms of form and content, but also uses as design elements.
The visual interpretation of poetry and literature has always played a central role in his artistic work. He has illustrated and printed books by Antonin Artaud, Bertold Brecht, Thomas Bernhard, and many others. Most recently, Portuguese Nobel Prize winner Fernando Pessoa found his way into Zylas' work.
