Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam

With this new series of paintings, Leiderstam returns to the modernistic practice in which he was trained in the 70s and 80s. Panels can be seen as a retroactive use of his knowledge of painting applied to the abstract image. Every painting is an object of its own; however, presented together on a table and shelves, they form sequences and rhythms in space. In this way, Leiderstam creates an environment where the viewer’s movement is an important part of the experience.

Matts Leiderstam’s work has often started from his experiences and desires related to classical paintings hanging in museums. To know more, he habitually repainted them, or made another form of what he calls ‘after-images’. He did this in order to understand their compositions, but also to see how we as viewers today experience them—namely with the accumulated stories attached to the history of these paintings. In our digital age, these paintings are shared as images on the screen and seen many times, thereby losing histories and acquiring unexpected new stories. In Leiderstam’s brain, all these images and experiences leave traces—not only from behind the screen, but also from his formative years of producing the ‘after-images’. In this way, they become part of a deep archive. The panels are not only beautiful objects, but also impressions of this archive, with images merging into new images: image after image after image.

Order the catalogue Panels with a text by Maria Lind through the gallery (office@wilfriedlentz.com) for 18 EUR.  Click here to download Maria Lind’s text: What do Matts Leiderstam’s Panels do?