Schattentheater (Chalk circles), 2017
- Medium
- Watercolor on canvas
- Dimensions
- Overall Dimensions: 69 x 236 1/4 x 1 inches (175 x 600 x 2.5 cm) Five panels, each: 69 x 47 1/4 x 1 inches (175.3 x 120 x 2.5 cm)
- Accession Number
- 2024.14A-E
- Copyright
© Silke Otto-Knapp, courtesy of the artist's estate and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
- Credit
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Purchase with funds provided by the Acquisition and Collection Committee and Christine Meleo Bernstein and Armyan Bernstein
Otto-Knapp’s paintings, sourced from documentation of historical performances, reflect her deep interest in dance history and the stage as both a real and fictional space. Considering similarities between stage and canvas, theatrical staging and pictorial composition, she aimed to construct paintings that function both two- and three-dimensionally, engaging with the artwork’s surface as well as its illusionary depth.
Schattentheater (Chalk circles) is based on a photo of a stage rehearsal at the Bauhaus Dessau theater (designed by Walter Gropius in 1926, photographed by architect Erich Consemüller in 1927). Imparting lightness and spatial indeterminacy, fluid-bodied dancer silhouettes perform everyday actions amid weightless geometric props across the five horizonless canvases. The bifurcated scene presents the figures as negative space against a black background on the left and positive space on a gray background on the right. The painting not only depicts theatrical props but also is structured like a set piece.