René Böll
"My artistic work"

There are two important force-fields which exert an effect on my artistic work ­ firstly, the European painting and printing tradition, which is particularly visible in the form of expression and the formal aesthetics of my paintings, and secondly my understanding of artistic creation, which is influenced by the spirit of Chinese philosophy, in particular Daoism, and relates to the traditional approach of Chinese ink painting.

My intense studying of colour, and the exceptional significance I attach to it, have its their roots in European tradition. I use an unusual wealth of the most diverse colours ­ earth colours and mineral colours, hundreds of pigments of natural earth colours, ground minerals such as orpiment and vermilion as well as plant, animal colours and modern organic and anorganic colours which when mixed with other pigments come close to plant colours. I prefer natural colours because in my experience they are more vivid and have a much larger spectrum.

At the centre of my aesthetics of colour is harmonization ­ a harmonization which relies on the Chinese concept of Yin and Yang, in which opposing as well as complementing elements are taken to be a natural whole.

It is perhaps the specific spirit which has to be underlying in order to master ink painting. If painting is understood as a specific way of expressing comprehension, then the specific form of comprehending Chinese ink painting is the Chinese philosophy of nature, with its particular expression: Daoism.

Clearly it is this connection to nature being so closely linked to painting which comes so close to my temperament and understanding of artistic creation.

The landscapes in my paintings are in many respects reminiscent of the world of imagination of Chinese Daoism. My landscapes radiate quietness and solitude. They are places which are far away from the distracting and tiring influences of the din of civilization, in them time is different from the time of history. Nature is left to herself.

Her elements ­ fire, earth, water, air, the sun and the moon, seas and mountains ­ follow the Dao, the "eternal way" in continuous change. Nor is man, embedded in nature, the measure of all things. In the form of death, the skeleton or the skull ­ a very frequent motive in my work ­ he too is integrated into this great cycle of Dao. In the process of dissolution, man is not dramatic or romantically small, but natural without any sign of resistance. Life and death, like all phenomena of nature, have no presage.

My art is concerned with "self-achievement", creating spaces within, and is less directed towards the outside, aggressive self-portrayal, and because of that it tends to move him closer to the Far Eastern image of the artist than that of many of my Western contemporaries.

In my mind prehistoric art has as much contemporary relevance as to days art ­ the same holds true for East Asian art or pre-Columbian excavations. Many modern art movements mean little or nothing to me. Me esteem for Rembrandt, Goya, Odilon Redon, Turner, Munch, Klee and many others continues to grow, even as it diminishes for others. I folow no canon in my work and embrace no ideological tenets or goals. It is irrelevant to me whether my works are "modern" or "trendy" or as an exibition in London was called a " sensation".