Galerie Fenna Wehlau - Christine LEINS

Can your drawings be described as écriture automatique?

No. Drawing needs regularity, freedom and lightness. The drawing does not reflect my emotional state, it is autonomous. Nor does it come into being under a trance, hypnosis or the influence of drugs. I mean, by means of the écriture automatique other "spirits were called" than the creative force, which lets my drawings develop. But it is true: the drawing grows when the images I have made of it break. Drawing means to me the letting go of expectations, ideas and claims of ownership. Drawing is the opposite of usefulness. Drawing is rather a trace of beauty in the world.

Is drawing an escape from reality for you?

No, drawing is a form of doing and being active. The creative force behind it only becomes visible in the completion of drawing. The drawing that emerges in this way bears enigmatic features, it remains a miracle for me.

In which tradition do you see your drawings?

Quite simply: in the tradition of all those who, without self-interest, set a drawing instrument in motion.

With which four artists would you have liked to share a studio?

With Agnes Martin, Emma Kunz, Guo Fengyi, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, I would have liked to be friends, because I think they were in contact with this creative force, found their sources in it.

Do women draw differently than men?

Often women try to draw like men. A difficult question: what is typical? Women, artists, are more ready to receive, to be guided by their intuition, have a sense that the soul also needs nourishment and find out what nourishment this could be. Women have always had, think of the muses of antiquity, a special relationship to beauty and show a loving and preserving attitude towards all living things.

In practical life, these qualities are gladly appreciated, but as traits or approaches to one's own life, they tend to be ignored or even smiled at. Transferred to the art world, or rather to the art market, the powerful gesture is often held in much higher esteem than the quieter tones. Female artists have so far tended to be successful to the extent that they do not distinguish themselves from the art of their male colleagues. Here's a provocative quote from Romano Guardini: "The world is perishing from the masculine, literally."

Which way did your drawing go?

The early representational works were attached to the world of things. Under the binoculars, meticulous studies of broken fly bodies and other insects were created. Since 1994 I developed my technique of dot glaze, which became the characteristic feature of almost all work phases. The still lifes created since 1999 are replaced from 2004 by FarbLichtFlächen, palm-sized. Since 2008 I draw "Inner Pictures", formed from point and line rhythms, initially still restrained in their colorfulness. In 2011, the Angermuseum Erfurt dedicated a solo exhibition and a catalog book ("Drawing the Beginning") to this ink pen period. Years of withdrawn drawing followed. The drawing, however, flowed without interruption.

In this seclusion you have continuously developed your graphic work, the colored drawing, organic forms, the line and currently again the dot glaze were themes of recent years.
That's right, drawing has continued on its path. In the process, the spectrum of her techniques has broadened: works in colored pencil or egg tempera, for example, were added, as well as the mixed technique took a large space. Individual drawings are now also created on larger formats of up to 9 m in length. In recent years, the dot glaze again came more to the fore, with the variations of the tonal values of a color formed a central theme. In retrospect, the drawing takes a spiral course over the years. Thus it returns again and again to themes treated in the past and encounters them anew on a different level, as it were.

And after this long time you have again felt the desire to show your drawings. What does this step mean to you?

I am very happy to have found in you, Fenna, an "eye friend" who has the courage to bring the sheets back to the light and to the viewer. In 2007 I had my first exhibition ever in Munich in the gallery Susanne Albrecht. For 12 years I lived and drew in Gröbenzell near Munich. Now leaves find their way back to Munich. That is very nice for me!
What greeting would you like to give the group exhibition on the way?

"Always keep something beautiful in your heart in difficult times" (Blaise Pascal).

Thank you very much, dear Christine!

Showroom 21: small is big, 2023

art and nature I, 2020

Linie I Poesie, 2019