Langes Bild, 1985–1987

The dates on Galli’s paintings often refer to the process of their making, which can last for years, as the artist often returns to compositions and reworks them, sometimes several times. In documenting the full duration of the painting process with dates noted on the back of the work, she reminds herself of the original attempt even if the subject does not exist anymore and has been replaced by something new. In the painting Langes Bild (1985–87), one or multiple centered amorphous figures seemingly lies in bed with leg raised. A figure at the right appears to assist in the process of bathing, the form of the extended arm repeated throughout the composition. The background field of yellow sets the outline for the action, which absorbs but also extends outward from the figure. The bedposts, which suggest a place of intimacy, appear routinely in Galli’s artist’s books. This study of interacting figures evokes the idea of the grotesque, and at the same time of shame, while the underlying layers, further evidence of reworking over a period of years, imply a continuous engagement with the work.

This painting is the earliest work in this exhibition, made in 1985 when Galli was forty years old and had been working in West Berlin for nearly a decade. The sense of expression and disfiguration was greatly influenced by the artists with whom Galli associated, including Rainer Küchenmeister, Walter Stöhrer, the sculptor Rolf Szymanski, her teacher Martin Engelmann, and her colleague and then close friend Max Neumann. The painting was part of larger format work which Galli started three years prior. The line work in Langes Bild is perhaps suggestive of Küchenmeister’s influence, whose watercolors including 11.11.65 P (1965) arranged fields of color which could not be contained by figural lines.