Andreas Rosenthal was born in 1988 and grew up in Vienna. He studied Sociology, Graphic Design and Art. In the beginning of 2023 Andreas founded a Printworkshop called „Sapperlot“ together his Atelier-Collegue Georg Kvapil. Here they do a lot of Screenprinting, experiment with different Monotype-Techniques, do Wall-Paintings and recently started doing Workshops too.
How did you get into art?
I started drawing and painting canvasses as a teenager but soon graffiti became more interesting and I spent several years painting outside. When I grew older I found back to my love for art and now I spend most of the time drawing, painting or printing in my Atelier. I’ve always been fascinated by the expressive power of colorful paintings and I guess I just want to pass along a bit of that fascination. In some way, art is – besides music – the most beautiful thing about humanity.
How would you describe your style? What makes your work special?
I guess every artist quotes the art he/she loves most in one way or another. In my case those are strong colorful expressive paintings. It’s quite a challenge to develop an own style and sometimes it’s quite painful when you realize that your work looks replaceable. I try hard to avoid that. At the moment I’m experimenting a lot with complementary contrasts and color accords. The power of colors and forms lead to a certain expression I’m eagerly searching for. In the end I don’t really like the concept of dogmatic approaches, categorizations, limits of thinking or schools of art or thoughts. I want to develop an expressive style that is modern, independent and timeless at once. Plus I don’t want to bore myself or anybody else to death so I try to paint strong powerful motives.
How do you go about developing your work?
The process depends on the motivation and circumstances I start from. Sometimes I choose a motive or a message I want to deliver and build colors and forms around a certain motive. Sometimes it’s the other way around – for example when I have to overpaint an old Canvas. Then colors, forms and intuition dominate the process. During the process I try to see and understand what disturbs me, eliminate all the disturbing elements and replace them by good ones. I always try to give the viewer something he or she can interprate. I see paintings as some form of universal language everybody can understand. Nothing is more boring than decorative art that says nothing than: look how beautiful I am.
Who or what influences you?
I love the ruffness of DeKooning or Cecily Brown, the monochrome prints by De Goya, Kirchner, Heckel or Schmidt-Rottluff, the Colors of Matisse and the Fauves, the poetry of the landscapes by Diebenkorn, the clean shapes and forms by Le Corbusier, the Anti-Style-Graffiti by SAEIO, the sculptures of Niki de Saint Phalle and Giacometti and the motives of Phillip Guston. I love the fact that some of the most famous artists were excludes by their Collegues because they tried to break out of the rules of their times because they became boring. For me, this fact is one of the most inspiring because it questions every fashion in art. There are no rules than the rules of Colors and Forms. And even those scream to be expanded or broken.
Make us curious. What is planned next?
First of all I have three unfinished large format canvasses that scream to be finished. Secondly I will create a motive for the next 4 color screenprint in A2 format that me and Schorsch want to print in the „Sapperlot“ workshop next week when a Videoteam comes to visit us. Number three on my todo-list is to paint a room in a quite cool underground tecno-party-location in Vienna. I use the concept of my current exhibition: I use strong complementary colors for the walls and install a color-changing light in the room that will change the whole time. The effect is really trippy. Number four is a large wall painting for the Semmelweisklinik. And after that I plan to do nothing for a while! Nothing than to watch my little Babygirl that will be born soon.
