David Benjamin Borgmann

ü b e r M o r g e n @david_borgmann Vernissage DO 19. März | 19 Uhr Trio- präsentation mit @katharina_andress und @keiyona.art #contemporarypainting #abstractpainting #paintingnow #artpainting #zeitgenoessischemalerei

Aus #ingeborgbachmann 's Rede „Die Wahrheit ist den Menschen zumutbar“: . „Im Widerspiel des Unmöglichen mit dem Möglichen erweitern wir unsere Möglichkeiten. Daß wir es erzeugen, dieses Spannungsverhältnis, an dem wir wachsen, darauf, meine ich, kommt es an; daß wir uns orientieren an einem Ziel, das freilich, wenn wir uns nähern, sich noch einmal entfernt.“ . From Ingeborg Bachmann’s speech “Die Wahrheit ist den Menschen zumutbar”: . 'In the interplay between the impossible and the possible, we expand our possibilities. What matters, I think, is that we create this tension ourselves— this relationship in which we #grow; that we orient ourselves toward a goal which, admittedly, moves away once more as we approach it' . #artist #davidborgmann #painting

#painting on display right now @schierkeseinecke #gallery #ffm in #groupshow NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK - Feb 27th till Apr 4th . The show assembles all represented #artists Congratulations to the new Space in Frankfurt to the gallery!

🏁 Final new show of the old year 🥰 With great pleasure, we invite you to our new group exhibition, in which contemporary photography and painting encounter one another in compelling and tension-filled dialogues. 👋 This exhibition also marks a farewell: after ten years of dedicated work and more than a hundred realized exhibitions, we are closing our chapter on Niddastrasse in Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel. We look back on this time with gratitude and on the many encounters that brought this place to life. 🎆 In 2026, we will open a new chapter – and look forward to welcoming our audience back in new spaces. David Borgmann presents abstract and atmospheric paintings in which light, color, and structure merge. His works open visual realms situated between memory and imagination. Ralf Brueck – known for his experimental, digitally altered photographs – explores the boundaries of the photographic image and raises questions about reality, manipulation, and perception. Manuel Stehli’s painterly compositions convey both calm and tension. His reduced interiors and figures tell of closeness, distance, and moments of stillness. The exhibition brings together three artistic positions that, in their differences, reveal surprising commonalities – whether in their exploration of space, surface, or time. Schierke Seinecke Niddastraße 63 60329 Frankfurt 📸 @8twentytwo (Frank Blümler) #new #show #exhibiton @thefrankfurtartexperience @galerien_frankfurt #contemporaryart #painting #photography #landscape #mountain #sea #clouds #sky #island #architecture

Implications and Consequences (Adornos #philosophy taken seriously): . Individual perspective cannot be collectivized, especially the painful one. Doing so means cutting the non-identical off it: flattening, reducing, banalizing, misusing its individual core . False universality claiming to speak for groups in fact speaks for no one. Once abstracted from individual experience, suffering becomes a tool for ideologies. Reduced to material for group #identity, to moral currency, to political narrative and propaganda, it gets reiterated and circulated. In that very moment of turning individual suffering into collective possession, momentum of enlightenment turns into myth: trivializing the irreducible specificity of individual suffering, using its pain for something other than amending it. Of course Adorno is not for remaining silent in front of injustice: He raises the question of how speaking out and not over, how to recognize and not coerce, how to engage and not forget our insufficiency . I felt Adorno and Camus touching at one point: Camus writes as mentioned about artwork being the death of an experience and it’s multiplication. He expresses elegantly the paradox of individuality for art. In becoming #form, lived individual experience gets lost and dies. But in doing so it simultaneously gets saved, becoming something to be experienced by others. Something individual becomes universal - but only because an individual lives through it. Individuality is both condition and sacrifice for art. . Adorno writes similarly in both Aesthetic Theory and Negative Dialectics: . ‚Subjectivity, necessary condition of the artwork, is not as such it’s aesthetic quality. This it only becomes through objectivation, in this respect subjectivity is self-externalized and concealed‘ (AT) . Or: . ‚The need, to let the suffering be articulated is a condition for truth. Because suffering is objectivity weighing on the subject, what it experiences as its most subjective, its expression, is mediated objectively.‘ (ND) . #Camus and #Adorno understand #individuality as a dialectical subject for art, a movement of death and resurrection in form . #davidborgmann #painting #arttheory

Part 4 . ‚The subject falls entirely different into the object, than the latter into the former‘ . 'Subject falls into the object‘: Kants subject-object separation is a theological atavism, a secularization of ‚In the beginning was the word‘ from #book of #john,where #spirit, #logos, #ghost resides over #matter.Object gets degraded to a metaphysical rest. Adorno demands primacy of the object back: subject falls (metaphorically speaking) into the object, is permeated by object, not purely spiritual but object itself. It’s part of material world, itself historical and #nature, physical #body . If subject falls,it does not rise: For Hegel the subject is an agent of the #universal, only ever striving upwards, fulfilling the objecitvated spirit - all contradictions reconciled in the end. Adorno turns against Hegel: 'Although nominalistic principle deceives them (individuals) about their isolation, they act collectively.‘ Adorno lets the subject fall: into assimilation. Passion, the unique and particular gets suffocated by the collective. The subject falls into the object with loss, entanglement, usurpation . ‚The object falls into the subject‘: It is now the subjects identificary thinking cutting off all non-identical for cost of the unique and particular . ‚Entirely different‘: The line is about a difference. Is it only a difference in direction, not quality? . No: In Adornos materialistic criticism of Kant, Object is always part of the subject. But the object exists without the subject. Here lays the key difference in mediation. As such conflicting, reluctant parts they cannot be harmonized or synthesized. A crack, that has to stay open: no teleological reconciliation, subject and object stay irreconcilable. But no metaphysical rest either . What is negative dialectics taken from this? . Negativity: negation of #Kant and #Hegel . History: Adorno goes against Kant and Hegel, but after them, containing Kant and Hegel as negation . Contradiction: No forced, premature synthesis, thought holding tension between irreconcilable subject and object . Non-Identity: consideration of the non-identical, the particular, the individual . #davidborgmann #elgreco #art #painting

Part 3 Kant/ Adorno (2 previous) Before getting back to last posts ending quote, a personal experience illustrates well the other quote about identificary thinking being subjectivist, even though it denies it . 2011 the big #seascape #painting (slide 2) was shown in #Leipzig. A #journalist did a review of the groupshow, mentioning it. Only to paraphrase from memory: the #author criticized the painting for its supposed lack of #complexity . Clearly this doesn’t make much sense since the painting is about reduction: Even though it offers only one color and two textured areas we are easily seduced into identifying a dramatic seascape. The painting is about our identificary way of looking . The author was used to Leipzig painting showing complex, #figurative, #storytelling, detailed and often crafty subjects. Instead of thinking and #writing within the parameters the painting had to offer, author simply compared it to the ones they already had in place and dismissed it . And now it gets tricky - and back to Adorno . One might think now, Adorno recommends not doing this identificary thinking then. No: For Adorno, there is only identificary thinking. But, there can be thinking, conscious about the identificary nature of thought. This second reflections, and more!, make for the complicated twists in Adornos texts and sentence-structures. It is anti systemic, anti dogmatic, moving, changing constantly. For a mind, non-conscious about its own identificary nature with a strong crave for idealistic reconciliation, this means frustration. Adorno thinks one thing, the opposite at the same time as part of it and then some . Why? . Back to that heavy sentence: ‘The subject falls entirely different into the object, than the latter into the former’ . I will dissect bit by bit. But first, imagine this sentence to be a #crystal. In it #Adorno manages to compress both his critique of #Kant and of #Hegel. He shows the theoretical problem, the spring if you will from where the river of negative dialectics originates. On top he builds the sentence to be an exemplary and with that explanatory piece of negative dialectics itself . To be continued . #davidborgmann #art #philosophy

Part 2 about #adorno and #kant - difference of ‚thing as it is‘ and ‚Non-Identity‘: an attempt to get a grip on Adornos #philosophy . Someone said to me after I told them about reading Adornos Aesthetic Theory, if I understood it I might as well explain it to them, because of it being so difficult . I said, I didn’t think the issue was understanding one specific thing. It is the way of thinking one has to get accustomed to . As it turns out, Adorno himself adresses this the same way in ‚Negative Dialectics‘ with example of Wilhelm Hauffs fairy tale ‚Dwarfnose‘, who needs help from outside by wise goose ‚Mimi‘ . Adorno writes: ‚Identificary thinking is, even though it denies it, subjectivist.‘ He writes, a jump is necessary for identificary thinking and philosophy to awake from its dream, and for that it needs what its own ban excludes. Just like in the tale, introspection alone is not gonna work. Revising this subjectivist thinking means depriving the subject of power . Diving into non-identificary thinking, into negative dialectics means to allow to deprive yourself of power - and that’s scary. It may be the same scare you feel, when trying to express in a new language: a fair amount of powerlessness. And believe it or not, with this feel of powerlessness to it, this faint of thought, we are basically right in the middle of Adorno . But don’t worry, this jump is basically doing itself when reading: with experience and practice . Getting back to it: . There is a line in Adornos #negativedialectics that I feel is the sun in the solarsystem Adorno, abstract and full of context, so that it is just very hard to get and hard to even arrive at . I believe it to be the center, a culmination even of Adornos thinking and of what negative dialectics is. And I feel If there is anything to be understood, to make the rest more easy, it might be this line (I take only the second part): . ‚The subject (falls) entirely different into the object, than the latter into the former‘ . To be continued . #davidborgmann #art #dialectic #nichtidentisch #painting #contemporarypainting

. In antique #pyrrhonism, a form of radical #skepticism, ten modes (zehn Tropen) describe the relativity of the world. 5th mode for example states relativity resulting from position, distance or place. This brings Kants categories to mind. . But as these observations of relativity have been made before him, Kants categories may not be the key aspect of his idea. . The skeptics come to very different conclusions: Because of this general relativity, cognition and knowledge isn’t possible at all, so they claim. Therefore it is wise to practice withholding dogmatic judgment all together (‚Epoché‘) to get to a state of ‚Ataraxie‘ (inner equilibrium). Epoché can also serve as a technique in conflicts, when a solution seems out of reach: It’s a step back, to take things as they come. . Kant on the other hand wants to save knowledge. He invents the ‚thing as it is‘ (noumena) and says, about that we can’t tell anything for sure. He separates it from the ‚thing as it appears’ (‚phenomena‘) and transfers the problem into the subject: These modes, the categories, are not part of the objects triggering perception but part of us, as a way our apparatus of perception is structured. Therefore the ‚thing as it is‘ necessarily shows itself to us in certain ways, as phenomena. . Now Kant can claim: look, if this is how perception works for everyone, cognition and knowledge are possible at last, only within these boundaries. . Without the invention of the 'thing as it is‘ - Kants main move - without this separation of the object from the subject, his positivist attempt to save cognition and #knowledge wouldn’t be possible. . This is where #Adorno criticizes #Kant. He agrees with highlighting the subject. But for Adorno this ominous 'thing as it is‘, the object for cognition gets lost too much. He demands the primacy of the object back. . One could think Kants 'Thing as it is‘ and Adornos 'Non-Identity‘ are somewhat the same. But understanding the difference, wich is a tough nut to crack, really is key to understanding Adornos critique of Kant and with that Adornos philosophical attempt. . To be continued . . . #davidborgmann #painting #philosophy #pyrrhonofelis

Das Naturschöne als Erscheinendes ist selber Bild (aus Adorno, Ästhetische Theorie) . Das Naturschöne, indem es uns erscheint, also auf uns wirkt, hat selbst schon Bildcharakter. Entgegen Kant, für den die Naturschönheit nur in unserem Urteil liegt, hebt Adorno hervor, dass im Bildcharakter der Schönheit der Natur bereits eine nicht zweckhafte, nicht bezwungene und damit herrschaftsfreie Welt aufscheint. Sie erscheint gestaltet, ist aber nicht von uns gemacht. . Wird das Naturschöne durch die Kunst bloß kopiert, verdoppelt sich der Bildcharakter, was erscheint wird objektifiziert und damit eliminiert: eine überflüssige Wiederholung zerstört das Ursprüngliche . For natural beauty, as something that appears, is itself image (Adorno, Aesthetic Theory) . Natural #beauty itself, in that it appears to us, thus affects us, already has the character of a #picture . Contrary to Kant, for whom #natural beauty lies solely in our judgment, Adorno emphasizes that in the pictorial character of natural beauty, a non-purposeful, unconquered, and thus none hegemonic world already appears. It appears shaped, but is not made by us. . If beauty of #nature is merely copied by art, the pictorial character is duplicated; what appears becomes objectified and thus eliminated: superfluous repetition destroys the #original . #davidborgmann #landscape #art #painting #water #contemporarypainting #contemporaryart #artsy #artist

Started #documenta5 in 1972 an incapacitation of artists? . Many share #bazonbrock’s critique on #documenta15 as ‚liquidation of #art in the name of #culturalism‘ . What we see today may have originated in a DOCUMENTA Brock himself took part in, curated by #haraldszeemann, marking a controversial shift at the time. Szeemann first subsumed #exhibition, art and artists under a theme and gained artist-like authority as author over artists - Before that, a council of 24 decided democratically . ‚The Master of the works: Daniel Buren‘ (Den Kurator kuratieren: Daniel Buren) is an essay in the book ‚Auftritt als Künstler‘- #beatricevonbismarck sheds light on the conflict between Szeemann, participating but protesting artists like #danielburen and none-participating #artists like #carlandre or #donaldjudd. Bismarck writes how #robertmorris didn’t want his work to be used as illustration for sociological theses or outdated arthistorical categories. She highlights how the initial concept of documenta5 emphasized event character and fronted the question, how art should be of use to solve social issues . Was Morris right to call this a step back? . Today’s questions aren’t new. In 1967 video interview (check #youtube and previous posts) #maxernst tells how 1930‘‘s world grew more threatening by the day. Artists in Zurich were discussing if painters were even allowed to continue painting. A director of a museum found, painters should turn to propaganda at once. Ernst asked if mathematicians should also stop working on mathematical problems and hand themselves over to propaganda. 'We were under the impression that the lust for painting gave us the right to everything, even the right to go hungry‘ . But then he was shocked over the threat of world war when spanish civil-war broke out. Artists debated weather to engage and how. Its very telling, that Ernst didn’t start painting propaganda but offered spanish forces help as educator for artillery forces against Franco putschists instead . Morris resisted curatorial overreach, Ernst propaganda. Should today’s artists resist or adapt to culturalism? . #davidborgmann Installationview from my Soloshow Festland in #leipzig 2020

. From #ThomasMann #doctorfaustus Ch. 8: ‚Perhaps, Kretzschmar said, it is the deepest wish of music not to be heard at all, nor even be seen or felt, but—if that were possible—to be perceived and contemplated in a realm beyond the senses and even the emotions, in the purely spiritual‘ . Mann recurs on #schopenhauer’s #music experience through Anschauung or apprehension, detached from body or emotion. By this it offers a break from suffering, an escape even. For Mann this detachment has a demonic side: it’s fascinating but seductive, leads to dangers of #metaphysics, spiritual self-overestimation, cultural psychosis like fascism even. Mann twists Schopenhauer into a cultural critique of what is ‚german‘ . Schopenhauer’s ascetic salvation is an exaggeration of #schelling’s romantic reconciliation. #kandinsky (see previous posts), passionate about #music is a modern enforcer of both through his #painting and book #thespiritualinart, more on Schellings positive #romanticism side - just like #hilmaafklimt, too. . #adorno recognizes both, favors #schönberg‘s #twelvetonemusic as pure #abstractart, appreciates emancipation from representation and decoration. He welcomes disharmony and the uncomfortable in favor of truth. But like Mann he fears abstract music could detach from its social base, become difficult elitism. He dismisses both, Schopenhauers escapism and ahistorical metaphysics and Schellings metaphysical philosophy of identity . For Adorno thinking itself is identificary. Forcefully it subordinates the single subject under the term. His solution is negative dialectics: Thinking has to become self-critical, self-conscious about its identificary nature. In prolog of #negativedialectics he sums it up: ‚Dialectics is the consistent and thorough consciousness of non-identity. It does not occupy a standpoint in advance.‘ . Thought has to recognize the contradictory - not try to reconcile. It has to honor the non-identical through negativity, criticism and art. . In my #painting practice I too am concerned with tension between identity and non-identity, where perception opens not to reconciliation, but to a #horizon of what resists being subsumed . #davidborgmann