A Square Dance – Henrik Kröner
March 6 to May 22, 2022
The canvases of Henrik Kröner (1979, Nordhorn, DE) living in Groningen look like thin colored pencil drawings on thin on unprepared, squared canvas, which evoke associations with the paper of a simple arithmetic notebook. The sense of touch is exchanged for the sense of looking, touching with the eyes, the gaze.
This exhibition revolves around a dance, the square dance. The mathematical rhythm of all small squares. It is not a static dance but it goes back and forth, crisscrossing each other. The works shown come from various series of Henrik Kröner’s oeuvre.
Where previously the emphasis was mainly on color and light progression, color spots and round shapes can now also be recognized. Simple compositions with a decorative look. The textile and tactile character of the work is omnipresent.
Kröner comes from a textile family. His grandmother studied textile design in Hamburg in the 1930s and his father is a textile engineer. The checked fabric in this exhibition comes from the factory where his father still works.
As a young student he started in math class with drawing the squares in his exercise book. “As an artist, I cherish boredom as a source of inspiration. Things can arise out of boredom.”
In recent years, Kröner has immersed himself in the two old stories Noli me tangere and Pygmalion. What interests him in both stories is the tension between the prohibition and the desire to touch something. Touching with the eyes and with the touch, our skin.
Pygmalion is also about the myth of the artist, the creator. Kröner is critical of this romantic idea. He asks himself questions such as: what is authentic, how do we judge something as good art and how is it appreciated.