In words

Ursula Bork   Openings – Energy fields     Painting

…To quote Henri Matisse: ´It is no longer the role of painting to represent historical events. We now hold painting in much higher regard. Its role is now to serve the artist in the expression of his inner vision´.

Should we decide to pursue abstraction – i.e. simplification in representation – to its logical conclusion, then concrete forms at some point melt away. The image reduces to a colour field defined only by respective application of the medium. Cases in point: the Pole, Kasimir Malewitsch, (1878 – 1935) Black square, suprematism, 1915. Barnett Newman, USA (1928 – 1962), large colour fields crossed by lines and planar implications. Yves Klein, born in Nizza, (1928 – 1962) blue surface, 1950, blue objects. The Russian-American, Mark Rothko, (1903 – 1970) eliminated in his large-format, monochrome colour-fields every slight implication of representation, employing instead zones of colour without any clear boundaries that differed only minimally in tone and hue from the background colour.

Ursula Bork builds on these combined explorations.

She too commences her canvases with a monochromatic plane. Admittedly employing more modem materials however – combining pigment and acrylic to her own immediate requirements. Monochrome areas somehow compell direct action. Concentrated immersion in these colourscapes yields a charged atmosphere that, from a phase of deceptive stillness, discharges itself in a sudden whipping action that leaves a broadbrushed symbol or character on the canvas surface.

In other images, planes of colour are used as openings into other colour-fields. These colour-fields have no story to tell. They prefer to be the basis for narratives, memories, dreamstates and fictive journeys undertaken instead by those viewers open enough to enter through the offered colour portals. This experience can be heightened if the viewer merges with colour-fields containing implied structures resembling energy-fields or lines of force. It is only through the interaction with the viewer that the images become complete.

As we can see, Ursula Bork experiments not only with the sound of colour, but also with its psychological effect upon the viewer.

(Günther Widenhorn, 9.1.2003, from his opening speech, Bodenseehalle Landratsamt Konstanz)

Feeling and consistency – the works of Ursula Bork

Ursula Borks works are, if described in polar terms, at home in two areas.

The one area is that of mood and feeling. She employs and has mastered the immaculate application of painted layers, which in their beauty, peace and subtle harmony touch the emotions. One submerges oneself in atmospheres and wishes to tarry awhile.

The other area is that of the rulebook, the question, a consistent exploration. She explores the influence of surface and its reaction to various operational influences and disruptions. We have what one could term action: broad, coloured brushstrokes standing for characters or symbols – which she calls ´Schwünge (sweeps)´- on shimmering grounds. Or in the case of another group of pieces, rectangular planes are placed which hold within them other coloured optical elements. In one of the rooms in the exhibition we find smaller format works upon which these of themselves vibrating events unfold, while next to them the larger format works unify both in one context.

Movement and peace, structure and plane, the effect of colour and the effect of action are the artist´s themes.

If the viewer pays close attention to these aspects of the exhibition, he will on the one hand simply enjoy the works – which is as it should be – while on the other hand he will gain an insight into the ´inner studio´ of an artist following her own rules and discovering her own solutions.

(Lilo Rinkens, 7.8.2003, On the exhibition: Statements – Malerei aus 4 Werksphasen / From 4 work-cycles, Munich)