Af Merete Sanderhoff

Mænd overvåges i al ubemærkethed i Peter Ravns billedverden som af fluen på væggen eller fra et skjul, uden at det forstyrrer dem eller bringer dem tilbage til virkelighedens iscenesatte selvforståelse. Personerne er i deres private rum, opslugte af sig selv og bemærker ikke, at de bliver betragtet.

Prototypen på den moderne mand – Manden – er et centralt motiv i Ravns billeder. Man ser dem i situationer, hvor de giver slip på sig selv og kontrollen. De befinder sig i et intimt og privat rum, hvor ingen behøver at agere normalt, men kun være til stede i et givent nu. De er uniformerede på den moderne måde, iklædt tilsyneladende tidløse jakkesæt og hvide skjorter, så man får associationer til noget kontrolleret, noget ordentligt, der et øjeblik har mistet overblikket. At indfange disse billeder af den moderne mands elegier har været et af Ravns bærende motiver, siden han forholdsvist sent debuterede som kunstner i 2004. Det moderne menneske blotter sig ind i mellem – i ubemærkede øjeblikke – trods sin uniformering og disciplinering. Dér slår Ravn til. Hans blik penetrerer den moderne mands offentlige facade og når ind til det private rum, der skjuler sig bag jakkesættets ulastelige overflade og vidner om, at den tilsyneladende orden er et blændværk. At dybest set er der mennesker inden under, med følelser, drifter, angst og aggressioner, som normalt holdes nede af en fælles konsensus. Han har en underhåndsviden om, hvad der foregår derinde, og evner at afdække facaden. Denne blotlæggelse af lidelsen bag den regelrette modernitet er et af Ravns særkender.

Peter Ravn bemestrer lærredet og kontrollerer kolorit og komposition med et håndværksmæssigt overskud, der vækker minder om en kalligrafs opøvede evne til at sætte et perfekt skrifttegn eller en pianists talent for at tilføje noget til en indlært node – noget, der ikke er, eller ikke kan noteres, men som har en afgørende betydning.. Skønheden – den indlysende skønhed, som findes i håndværkets egne krav – opstår som en konsekvens af denne opøvede evne. Hans evne til at se, hvornår der er det billede der skal være giver hans billedunivers en frapperende præcision. Han maler med en søvngængersikker penselføring, der efterlader sit tydelige præg og et mærke af egensindig kontrol over sit motiv, fx i værker som Manual (2008), Kneeman (2009) og Han havde stjålet hans liv (2009). Ravns iagttagelser bliver interessante og udfordrende, fordi de samtidig efterlader en uløst gåde: Hvad har udløst dette scenarie, hvad har skubbet til den herskende orden, og hvad skal der ske nu?

Ravns lærreder fremmaner sådanne øjeblikke, der måske bunder i en konkret oplevelse eller sansning, eller i en fascination af fotografiets forevigelse af et øjeblik af virkeligheden. Flere af hans motiver synes således også fascinerede af den æstetiske fremmedhed, der ligger i et moderne blik ned gennem tiden.

I de nyeste billeder er Ravn begyndt at dyrke fragmentet. De nye scenarier bærer præg af noget, der er under forvandling, noget, der trues af en indre opløsning, eller antydningsvist afdækker det meningsløse og absurde i de moderne menneskelige vilkår.

Motiverne er forbundne som serier, fx med titlen Elevation. I denne serie er det ganske rigtigt som om mændene her har mistet jordforbindelsen og svæver i et metafysisk tomrum, løsrevne fra normalitetens fysiske lovmæssighed.
Her har Ravn bevæget sig helt ind bag facaden, ind i figurernes mentale rum, hvor han med stor indlevelse og præcision sætter konkrete billeder på følelsen af at gå i opløsning som følge af ydre eller indre pres: Den ydre verdens forventninger om effektivitet og disciplin, den enkeltes forventninger til sig selv, men også varmen og menneskeligheden, der sætter sig igennem som et uimodståeligt indre pres trods selvdisciplineringens værn. Ind i mellem er Manden spaltet i flere personaer, der interagerer – skriger hinanden ind i ansigtet, kravler forvirrede i hver sin retning, ømt holder hinanden – alt imens deres ellers askegrå kroppe og ansigter gennembrydes af pletvise tegn på affekt.

Set med Ravns øjne synes fortvivlelsen at gå hånd i hånd med moderniteten. De æstetiserede rum, som billederne udgør og hans blik for det moderne menneskes splittelse, danner sammen et smukt mareridt og er gjort så velkendt, at man som beskuer er indfanget af den tilsyneladende hverdagsagtige ramme. Her genkender man noget, uden nødvendigvis at erkende sit eget fællesskab med det.


Jeg ser Ravn som beslægtet med flere af de af kunstnere, jeg i 2007 beskrev som en eksistentiel modstrøm i samtidskunsten i min bog Sorte billeder. En gruppe malere, der arbejder i opposition til den type moderne kunst, der baserer sig på og er afhængig af teori for at give mening. Det er naturligt at sammenligne Ravn med Peter Martensen, da de i motivkredsen begge opererer med anonyme, flerdoblede mænd i moderne uniformer. Men også i forhold til penselføring og håndværksmæssig ekvilibrisme er det naturligt at sammenligne ham med fx Michael Kvium. Han viderefører således en tradition for det sanselige og fortællende maleri, som op gennem det 20. århundrede blev fastholdt af malere som Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud og Gerhard Richter, trods teoretisk modstand.

Peter Ravn er uddannet ved Arkitektskolens Institut for Design i 1980. Inden debuten som kunstner arbejdede han i mange år med design og visuel identitet især indenfor pladebranchen, og op gennem firserne og halvfemserne stod han bag den grafiske iscenesættelse af bands og musikartister som Gangway, Randi Laubæk og Dizzy Miss Lizzy. Han har i samme periode skrevet og instrueret musikvideoer. Men op gennem halvfemserne mistede musikbranchen i hans øjne noget af sin uskyld og sin legende skabertrang, og han søgte derfor mod maleriet, som han opfatter som den sidste frie bastion for kreativiteten.


Merete Sanderhoff er mag. art. i kunsthistorie og projektforsker på Statens Museum for Kunst. Hun er forfatter til bogen “SORTE BILLEDER – KUNST OG KANON” , som i 2007 udkom på Forlaget Politisk Revy. Bogen er en bearbejdet version af en prisopgave, som modtog Århus Universitets guldmedalje i 2006.

 

 

By Merete Sanderhoff

Men are discreetly surveyed in Peter Ravn’s paintings. By the fly on the wall or clandestinely, without disturbing them or bringing them back to the orchestrated self-perception of reality. The subjects exist in their private rooms, self-absorbed and oblivious to the fact that they are being watched.

The prototype of the modern man, is the core motif in Ravn’s paintings. These men are pictured in situations where they let go of themselves and of control. They exist in an intimate and private room where nobody needs to act normal, being required only to be present in the now. They are uniform in the modern sense, dressed in what appears to be timeless suits and white shirts suggesting something very orderly and controlled, which has then lost it momentarily. To capture these pictures of the modern man’s elegies has been a lead motif for Ravn, since his relatively late debut as a painter in 2000. The modern man reveals himself occasionally, when seemingly unnoticed, in spite of the uniform and discipline. That’s where Ravn strikes. His gaze penetrates the modern man’s public facade and reaches into the private space, hiding behind the immaculate surface of the suit and testifies that the perceived order is just a delusion. That in reality there are people underneath with feelings, instincts, anxiety and aggression, traits which are normally suppressed by mutual consensus. He has a clandestine knowledge of what goes on under the surface and is capable of uncovering it. This exposure of the suffering behind the strict modernity is one of Ravn’s hallmarks.

Peter Ravn masters the canvas and controls colouring and composition with considerable gusto, which brings to mind a calligrapher’s hard-earned skill of writing beautifully or a pianist’s talent for adding that extra something that doesn’t read in the score.”. That extra which transcends skill, but is of determining importance. The beauty, the obvious beauty that exists intrinsically in the demands of the craftmanship, comes to life as a consequence of this adapted skill. His ability to see, when the picture that should be is, gives his work such a striking precision. He paints with the confidence of a sleepwalker, leaving a distinct mark of willful control over the motif, as exemplified in works like Manual (2008), Kneeman (2009) and
He had Stolen his Life (2009). Ravn’s observations are interesting and challenging because they leave you with an enigma: Who orchestrated this scenario, what disrupted the order and what will happen next?

Ravn’s canvases conjure up such moments, which may be founded on a specific experience or perception or in fascination of a photograph’s immortalisation of a fraction of life. Several of his motifs thus reflect a fascination with the aesthetic estrangement that can be found in a glance back through time.

In his newest paintings, Ravn has started cultivating the theme of fragmentation. The new scenarios are reminiscent of something in transit, something threatened by disintegration from the inside that implies the meaninglessness and absurdity of modern life.

The motifs are connected as series, for instance with the title Elevation. In this series it seems that’s exactly what’s happened to these men, who have lost touch with the ground and are suspended in a metaphysical vacuum, detached from the laws of physics and normality. Here, Ravn has moved wholly behind the facade, into his subjects’ mental space where he, with great empathy and precision, shows what it looks like when you dissolve as a result of inner or outer pressure: The outer world’s expectations of efficiency and discipline, each person’s expectations of themselves, but also the warmth and humanity, which pushes through as an irresistible inner pressure in spite of all outer guards. Sometimes The Man is split
into several personae who interact; screaming into each others’ faces, crawling perplexedly in opposite directions or tenderly hugging each other; while their otherwise ashen bodies and faces show flashes of emotion here and there.

From Ravn’s point of view despair and modernity seem to go hand in hand. The forum for aesthetics that is Ravn’s paintings and his ability to see the disconnection of the modern man go together to share with us a beautiful nightmare and have been turned into something so familiar that you, as the spectator, are caught in the frame of apparent normality. Here you recognise something without necessarily recognising what part you yourself play in it.

I see Ravn as related to several of the artists whom I in 2007 described as an existential counter current in contemporary art in my book Black Pictures. A group of painters working in opposition to the type of contemporary art that is based on and dependent on theory to make sense. It seems quite straightforward to compare Ravn with Peter Martensen, as they both portray anonymous, cloned men in modern uniforms. And when discussing brushwork and equilibristic craftsmanship one quite naturally thinks of Michael Kvium. Ravn thus carries on a tradition of sensuous and narrative painting, which throughout the 20th century has been upheld by painters like Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Gerhard Richter in spite of theory based opposition.

Peter Ravn graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1980. Before his debut as an artist he worked many years with design and visual identity, mostly in the music business. Through the 80s and 90s he was behind the graphic identity of bands and musicians such as Gangway, Randi Laubæk and Dizzy Miss Lizzy. In the same period he wrote and directed a number of music videos. But Ravn found that, during the 90s, the music business lost some of its innocence
and playful creativity and he turned to painting, which he perceives as the last free bastion of creativity.


Merete Sanderhoff holds a Masters degree in Art History and works as a project researcher at the National Gallery of Denmark. She is the author of the book “Black Pictures – Art and Canon”, which was published in 2007 by Forlaget Politisk Revy. The book is an edited version of a prize project which received a gold medal at Aarhus University in 2006.