Unique C-print, 305 x 125 cm
Exhibition: Tom Fecht DeepTime / TIEFENZEIT
Museum DKM Duisburg (5. May – 3 December 2017)
* Tom Fecht refers simultaneously to a pair of paintings by the American artist Barnet Newman (1905 – 1970) and his own birthdate in 1952. While Newman’s Day before One (1951 – Kunstmuseum Basel) and Day One (1952 – Whitney Museum New York) clearly reference the deep time of Genesis, Fecht refers to the modest human time capsule between his early embryonic state and his actual birthday. The strip-like ratio and diptych structure of both works suggest in themselves already a sequence of a Before and an undetermined After, but until today Newman’s exceptionally large canvases (334.7 x 127.3 cm each) have never been exhibited together. The photographer’s homage honors the painter on multiple levels. Already the measurements of these prints clearly reflect Newman’s extreme canvas proportions guiding the viewer eyes upwards while bending his head in the neck. And what appears to be straightforward black and white photography reveals on close up inspection the subtle traces of color prints. Re-opening finally the current diptych for future completion, Fecht references the uncertainty embedded in the gravitational pull towards the day of his death; not knowing if the painterly dark matter of all three prints will ever been fused during his own lifespan.