Diagrams of the present

Flash victory of a term: most of the attempts to describe contemporary culture have been straining the metaphor of a net up to the breaking point. Within next to no time the net mutated to the paradigmatic model of post-industrial society per se, with the pretence of being able to adequately describe its building principles and functionalities in the form of “connections”. This interconnected “Society of the And” (Romer van Toorn) no longer developed out of the dynamics of forces that augment along the exclusionary categories of “either/or”, but rather the “and”, builds its extremely powerful motor that steadily creates a web of unstable balances yet simultaneously valid claims. In this network, this society sees its “pattern” that drastically differs from the developmental lines of classical “modern” traditions, with its undirected and changing contours. It is however surprising that despite the emphatic parting with a “master plan” in favour of multiple parallel “programmes”, the metaphor of the net is used mainly in the singular, as if it were to once more determine another steadfast basis, even though it is precisely this, that should have been given up on in favour of a fluid field of resonances and virtualities.

The paintings by Franz Türtscher have a diagrammatic character and therefore neatly fit into these times on a purely formal level. The diagram of his most recent carrier, also in the areas of art and architecture, is thanks to his ability to represent heterogeneous information and interdependencies of various parameters on a graphic level. Here it functions both as an instrument of visualising complex, “webbed” issues, as well as guidelines for decision processes that are not limited to the artistic fields, which explains his proliferation, particularly in the area of hard science.

The diagram thus connects the abilities to represent information of “dense encounters” with dynamic processes, while simultaneously putting them in order. Here it is always also the result of processes of reduction and through this, this schematisation it is able to gain its analytic strength.

Franz Türtscher uses the possibilities provided by the diagram for his painting, without painting diagrams themselves. He organises his visual declarations in the form of operative platforms that consist of geometric patterns and function much like an abstract machine that is capable of creating and processing information, once the viewer has initiated the process. By this definition, Türtscher’s painting are “self-regulating”, without becoming “autistic”; quite the contrary, their spectrum of declarations is not restricted to the painting itself, but rather, the textures expand over the limits of the painting into the space and thereby prove themselves to be formalised models of thought within the discussion surrounding societal conditions. Türtscher considers painting to be the preferred form of crystallisation of his visual thought processes, as it proves to be the most uncomplicated, however he has also realised these thoughts in the areas of architecture, sculpture, and photography.

He works with rhythmic patterns of the homogenous, as well as conversely with the representation of the conditions of balance of the manifold, however, without formulating a type of “ethical programme”, such as was the case concerning “de Stijl”, or “Bauhaus”. Quite the opposite: Türtscher’s painting of hard contrasts and permanent breaks convey an exhausting restlessness, rather than a meditative silence, and in this case, the nervous energies can be felt directly even in a physical manner. The motor functions of the painter are transported by gestural attacks on the self-determined orthogonal pattern, that are attacked, shaded, and liquefied. This friction between order and anomaly, harmony and dissonance, monotony and variance, rationality and psycho motor remains virulent in Türtscher’s painting and at no point is there a case of dialectic “Aufhebung”.

His paintings are places of confrontation between “strong” and “weak” signs, stable and instable forms, mega and micro structures, without the prospect of reconciliation or overcoming. Thus they formulate legitimate diagrams of the present and sharpen the perception of the relationships within a society that is based on the principle of construction of the “and”. Türtscher’s art operates with a “net” and not least because of this, is it possible for it to formulate relevant declarations on the status of the post-industrial society in the state of network.