09 July - 23 August 2003 3 o’clock road block
35 Heddon Street, London W1
As a painter Wilhelm Sasnal deliberately eludes categorisation, straddling the abstract and the figurative, and constantly shifting his subject matter, technique and style. While based on Sasnal's own snapshots and appropriated images, these sober and measured paintings are far removed from the brashness of Pop, nodding rather towards post-war German and American painting.
Sasnal’s use of perspective and focus subverts conventions of representation - blue churches hang upside down; aerial views of vast sprawling industrial cities become abstract patterns. At the same time, medium becomes subject as Sasnal concentrates on ways to manipulate his paint.The air of detachment in these experiments reflects Sasnal's attempt to understand and assess the essence of visual reality.