Oil on canvas;
Monogrammed lower right, signed, titled, and dated on verso;
30.5 x 25.3 in inch framed;
Leander Kaiser's work Small Platform” from 1992 is strongly inspired by the aesthetics and theatrical references of painter Max Beckmann. The black-and-yellow platform, where figures in various costumes act, recalls Beckmann's staged worlds, in which life is portrayed as a stage. Kaiser emphasizes that the theatrical plays a central role in his image composition, both as a conscious homage to Beckmann and as a constructed element that lends artificiality and depth to the image. Leander Kaiser naturally positions himself within the canon of art history, with the confident certainty that he contributes something to contemporary art that endures—especially because it eludes all fashionable trends. As an attentive observer of history and the present, he creates a work that willingly references the tradition of painting but is only possible in its symbolism and form in the present. Ultimately, however, the work wants to be discovered” by the viewer.
