Edition Marc Theis, 1995
Immortally as well as strength are based in stone, which can only be changed by time or the human hand. But it is there and hides its mystery, only external marks sometimes giving it away. To study stone, to dive into its interior, to discover it, is the challenge Anna Recker faces; as in a type of mediation she gradually matures and comes a step closer, right up close to it, for the whole time she spends working on it. Back in the period 1981-1986, when she was still dreaming of quarries, underground passages, bunkers, circles and fields of stone and committing them to paper – aquarelles and drawings – she was still on the outside as a spectator. Today Anna Recker has moved, not in relation to the stone but to us, because she has seized the geological essence so that we are now the outsiders looking on in amazement at how the artist has slightly unveiled the mystery of the stone. Now she has cautiously entered in order not to disturb. We can see the injuries, the cracks, the circular openings and carved works. They alter the surfaces as an exterior sign of time. Anna Recker goes further still. Her pictures are generally only parts of a stone, because the numerous details produce a multitude of enriching shapes and signs to be explored, emerging like a message which she wants to pass on to us. She wants to dig deeper, to go deeper into the stone, to merely imagine and finally abstract into shapes, which will then truly include only the deeper meaning. The artist’s aim is to reduce the formal statement to a minimum. In her latest works she tries to make the invisible visible; forms which are discovered only at a closer look, underlying signs, forms which represent convergence. Forms that come and go, showing different colours, but the same quality of tone. Signs are virtually invisible within painted surface, and can only be sensed through closer observation. Geometrical shapes, which were limited to squares up to now, are new to the pictures. The delicate representation of a mood is also a novelty. Anne Recker wants to unite geometry and monochromy despite their contrasts, a unity that is clearly crystallizing. She represents these contrasts in an abstract way, working with a thin but intensive coating, which allows the retraced shapes to shine through. As always in her works the supposition plays an important part, whereby the outer layer sometimes opens a view into the interior. Her works emit tranquillity and demand a thoughtful, contemplative observation. ‘I want to transmit peace, stability and a sense of balance, because our times are so different, so hectic and fast, so transient’, says Anna Recker. Elisabeth Vermast