Siegmund Schneider

Siegmund Schneider

Like probably every child, I began drawing and painting as soon as I could hold a brush and pencil. I was interested in art, especially modern art, even as a child. By the age of thirteen, I had read everything about modern architecture that the public library in my hometown of Delmenhorst had to offer. Perhaps a little unusual for a working-class child at a secondary school in the 1960s. Nevertheless, it would be a long time before I was finally able to study art. Through the alternative educational path, I finally managed to get into art school in Bremen in 1981, which later became the Academy of Arts during my studies.

Painting and drawing, as well as the overlaps between these poles, are the means of my work, but its themes are architecture and sculpture and the connection between these two themes.

One can also simplify it: themes are form, color, and structure. Now, good art has many layers and levels of meaning. Nothing is merely what it seems. Of course, my art is also a statement on modernity, on aesthetics, beauty, and power. Naturally, what one creates also says something about the creator. I don't depict architecture that exists or should exist. My pictures are representational and they are not, because the subject of painting is always also the preoccupation with color itself. When viewing my pictures, one should also ignore the representational aspect and allow color and form to have an effect on oneself. Charisma and emotionality are just as important components of good art as intelligent image creation and composition. The search for forms, colors, and structures are just as much themes as any other content-related statements. Therefore, the seemingly representational loses its clarity and is integrated into an essentially non-representational painting. Nevertheless, the pictures are, of course, also representational, have a very concrete formal language that is also intended to serve a purpose. For me, art isn't meant to be beautiful, uplifting, or to spread good vibes. Art must be intense, have charisma, be uncomfortable, and irritate.

Schneider doesn't want to deliver images that are one-sidedly glorifying, nor images that are too obviously critical. He doesn't want to evaluate the world he paints so simply, so simplistically, in terms of good and evil, black and white. The architecture of the exercise of power and intimidation has its fascinating aesthetics. But the fascination is tied to that which belittles us, to the baseness of power.
"Schneider's pictures are ambivalent and ambiguous in both intent and effect. They aim to make the viewer a doubter who does not smooth over the contradictions but rather confronts them with maturity.
Hayo Antpöhler†, from the opening speech for the exhibition at the Haus am Wasser, Bremen-Vegesack 199

Siegmund Schneider is accordingly also inspired by toys and building blocks. It is an artificial world of images that his paintings open up, obsessively presented, a narrow motif pattern without the possibility of escape. Gigantically exaggerated architectural elements rise into a synthetically illuminated sky, bottomless, of unstable construction. There are no people here. There is no decoration, no openings in the stone, no doors or windows.
"Despite the simplicity of the forms and surfaces, there is no trace of calm. On the contrary, the images exude a great sense of unease. For upon closer inspection, it becomes clear: what seemed to be conceived as space, as three-dimensionality, dismayingly transforms into surface, that is, space annihilates itself into surface. It is a highly explosive, oppressively calculated interplay between construction and its destruction.
Barbara Alms, from the opening speech for the exhibition at Haus Coburg, Delmenhorst 1992

The artist Siegmund Schneider transforms 'man-made structures' and reimagines them through painting – usually on a large scale. He places them against a neutral backdrop and shifts accents of his original object with the help of altered shapes and colors. This is how a house can become a sculpture. For him, these "structures" are inspiration! He enigmaticizes what was once clear; he uses artistic means to break into a firmly established world, as long as it isn't ravaged by the elements of fire, water, and storms, or a war leaves behind only unrecognizable remains.
Ute Ocsek-Fürg in: Siegmund Schneider, Beauty and Terror, Bookholzberg 2019

biography

1953: born in Delmenhorst
1969: Secondary school leaving certificate
1969 - 1981: Training and employment as a telecommunications technician
1981: Non-Abitur examination at the University of Bremen
1981 - 1986: Studies at the HfK Bremen with Prof. Jürgen Waller
1984: Collaboration on the mural Bunker Admiralstraße, Bremen-Findorff
since 1986: freelance artist
1991: Work scholarship from the city of Delmenhorst
1991: Mural in the commercial college, Delmenhorst
1992: Substitute professorship at the HfK Bremen
1993/94: Collaboration at the Municipal Gallery Bremen
2021: Corona scholarship from the Senator for Culture, Bremen

Solo exhibitions (selection)

1986: Café Grün, Bremen
1989: Municipal Gallery Haus Coburg, Delmenhorst, with Peter Neumann
1991: House on the Water, Bremen
1991: Ganderkesee Art Association, with Sabine Hartung
1992: Cornelius Hertz Gallery, Bremen
1992: Municipal Gallery Haus Coburg, Delmenhorst
2007: Pusdorf Cultural Center, Bremen
2010: Atelier[hof]Gallery, Bremen
2011: Philosophy Salon Bernd Oei, Bremen
2014: Philosophy Salon Bernd Oei, Bremen
2019: AtelierGalerie einseins7, Bremen
2021: Museum "Old Pumping Station", Bremen
2022: Regional Art Space, Bremen
2024: Omnilab, Bremen
2024: Gallery 149, Bremerhaven

Exhibition participations (selection)

1984: 1st Painters’ Symposium of the County of Bentheim, Frenswegen Monastery
1988: "600 Years of Düsseldorf – Impressions of the City", Düsseldorf and Bonn
1992: "Young Art from Bremen", Theater auf dem Hornwerk, Nienburg
1984 - 1993: multiple participation in the Promotional Prize for Fine Arts, Bremen
1990: "House, Castle & Co.", Municipal Gallery Haus Coburg, Delmenhorst
1994: Scholarship holders of the city of Delmenhorst, Galeria Teatru NN, Lublin, Poland
1999: Scholarship holders of the city of Delmenhorst, Bremen Airport
2005: Artist of the Gallery, Galerie Cornelius Hertz, Bremen
2009: "Intermezzo", Municipal Gallery Haus Coburg, Delmenhorst
2011: "Desire to Come", Cornelius Hertz Gallery, Bremen
2020: "various", xpon-art Gallery, Hamburg
2021: "Seduced by Color, Form, and Passion," Freiraum Kunst, Bremen
2021: "ReArt meets Cultural Heritage," contemporary art meets cultural heritage, Re-Art Halle, Ihlenworth
2021: "Art.Harbor.Walle", Freiraum Kunst, Bremen
2021: "aus_bruch", xpon-art gallery, Hamburg
2021/22: "state of play", BBK Bremen, Bremen
2023: "raumNEHMEN", xpon-art gallery, Hamburg, part of the 'Hamburg Architecture Summer 2023'
2023: "Art.Harbor.Walle", Kaba Event Hall, Bremen