"I don't make cute, decorative paintings" | Artist Ursula Reuter Christiansen | Louisiana Channel

Meet German-born artist Ursula Reuter Christiansen in her studio in Denmark and learn more about her practice and an artistic career of more than fifty years - and counting. Reuter Christiansen takes us from her roots in the German town Trier and all the way up to her most recent, large-scale action paintings. On the way, we stop in front of a handful of works from the artist’s enormous production.
Reuter Christiansen talks about influences from Catholicism, literature, romanticism, mannerism, politics, female role models, and peers in her youth such as Markus Lüpertz, Jörg Immendorff, Imi Knoebel, and Sigmar Polke - and the decisive influence from professor Joseph Beuys, whom she studied under at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf in the mid-1960’s.
The use of different materials in creating artworks that have a strong physical, sensual presence is at the heart of the artist’s production. “I'm not the type to have a little easel and fiddle with a brush”, she notes, and shares one of her most recent works where the political substance is formed with paint, bodily action and raw eggs.
The video opens with a passage from Reuter Christiansen’s text “Fast pictures” (1983): "Fast pictures, hasty pictures, scrawled pictures, impatient pictures, mirror pictures, desperate pictures, amorous pictures, revealing pictures, superficial pictures, mad pictures, never: nice, comfortable, thoroughly prepared, sweet-smelling, conciliatory pictures. All I can say is that I HAVE PAINTED THEM! … These pictures are true curiosities. Look at them, dammit!"
Ursula Reuter Christiansen (b. 1943) is a German-born artist, based in Denmark since 1969 when she graduated from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and married Danish artist and composer Henning Christiansen (1932-2008). Reuter Christiansen has exhibited widely. In 2001, she represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale with Henning Christiansen. She has participated in group exhibitions such as WACK! Art and the feminist revolution at MOCA in Los Angeles and MOMA PS1 in New York in 2007-08. Recent museum solo exhibitions were held at SMK National Gallery of Denmark and MdbK Leipzig. Reuter Christiansen has served as a professor at HFBK Hamburg and The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. For more information on the artist see: ursulareuterchristiansen.com/...
Ursula Reuter Christiansen was interviewed by Tine Colstrup at her studio in Denmark in July 2020.
Camera: Jakob Solbakken
Edited by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen
Produced by Tine Colstrup
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2020
Supported by Den A. P. Møllerske Fond
FOLLOW US HERE!
Website: channel.louisiana.dk
Facebook: / louisianachannel
Instagram: / louisianachannel
Twitter: / louisianachann

[@ricromrec]

The Storytelling, a revelation!!! BRAVO Louisiana Channel!!! Applause....

[@victormorgado5318]

I was convinced that it was a tv channel from the south USA ( Louisiana) and avoided it for a long time until i watched this revealing film today!

[@thelouisianachannel]

@@victormorgado5318 Yes, we get that sometimes! We're based outside of Copenhagen, Denmark, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. The property that houses the museum had been built and named in 1855 by Alexander Brun (1814-93), who was an officer and Master of the Royal Hunt and who married three women who were all named Louise. That's why it's called Louisiana. Just a fun fact!

[@nagolhayze9366]

Ursula this paintings are so cute and decorative. I find your work so sweet, enchanting and upbeat. It’s like you’ve sprinkled stardust on the pathway of life. Thank you for this. It helps one face each new day with hope and empathy.

[@igneogl7489]

Ursula living legend 🙌🏽

[@jennifercoralie9158]

What a fantastic artist!

[@ronart5852]

Love it ! FTW!

[@sharonrussell7799]

Wow... raw truth. I love her.

[@GenieGeerArtyology]

How wonderful! Thank you! I have shared it.

[@bnelkin]

she's my fav artist working today

[@moniqueneagle7091]

Fierce lady for sure. Powerful. 💕

[@bahourdrawing6397]

Beautiful 🙏🙏

[@victormorgado5318]

I enjoyed watching this. Her life, her historical references like Lupertz, Jörg Immendorff, Imi Knoebel, and Sigmar Polke - and her influence from professor Joseph Beuys, as well as the revealing information of Beuy's literally deadly influence in some students by his dark character, causing them to commit suicide. NO wonder I was never convinced by Beuys and the respect he had earned among the New York Intellectuals of my generation

[@jwebstersmithii7459]

cute and decorative stuff.

[@austinkonchira1568]

Very nice

[@jhavajoe3792]

Bueys always fascinated me. His bout with healing by pelts as he was injured threw a wrench in the gears about what we don't know about the world. That's the fun of discovering in the realm of the Mysterious.

[@dacsurlap]

작품이 정말 좋다

[@pitmanra]

Very interesting. Thank you. Could you name the source of the accompanying sound track?

[@gutebrandao4369]

Could be by her late husband

[@RayasNegroOvejas]

It's Matière Grise & Omphalos from Luc Pisco's Pizzicato album

[@pitmanra]

@@gutebrandao4369 Thanks. See message below yours.

[@joedavis4150]

... Louisiana Channel, interesting. Thank you.... For the hottest thing going, look up images of Salish whale paintings, Ojibwe animal paintings, and Kokopelli paintings.

[@judymiles7186]

To each their own, I suppose.

[@michael4250]

No place in your world for beauty? Be careful, don't let it slip in by accident.

[@lindamon5101]

URSULA IM SO INSPIRED BY YOU! INCREDIBLE!😍🤣🙊🙉🙈💛❤🌻🌻🌻THANKYOU🙏 if i change my name& sign all my art louise may i please move to denmark & paint? Ima quarter Dane. Artist in residence? Art critics can be such douchebags!

[@curiousperson6275]

I get the Vibe that Ursula is far more interesting (entertaining) than her Art.

[@bananartista]

egg bombs

[@saschaheinzen]

what language is this, is it a german dialect?

[@thelouisianachannel]

Hi! Ursula Reuter Christiansen is a German-born artist, based in Denmark since 1969 when she graduated from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In the video she speaks Danish ☺️

[@Ghosty77HD]

Was wondering the same thing..

[@AmazingGamingsh]

Danish with a very slight german accent.

[@ricromrec]

Agreed! - wonderful nuanced accent!!!

[@murraymarshawn2175]

This amazing artist represents such a real woman as compared to the under-40 lost and fake 'feminist' women of today's era. She's a total force, beautiful and unabashedly powerful in feminine ways that are all but extinct now. Today, chicks want a medal for showing breasts on Instagram.

[@harperwelch5147]

Indeed not. What would we describe this painting as? Outsider Art maybe. Untrained, unexpected, careless in a good way. They don’t speak to me, but they do speak, I’ll grant you.

[@victormorgado5318]

Those paintings are very contemporary German. It is the imagery of a certain german generation and what they learned in the academy. Most germans painter of the 1980s painted like this and it pleased succesfully the international market. I never understood it myself...

[@williamroberts8470]

I think her work is mediocre at best and it gets worse when hearing her intellectualize herself. At least two works stand out.

[@miguelangelcollazo5081]

Which are the ones that you see as standing out? It would be very interesting to me. Thanks

[@williamroberts8470]

@@miguelangelcollazo5081 The large and tall light colored one with two figures behind her (sitting interview) and one in the intro shots of a female laying down with brightly colored arm possibly with another figure. All at a glance. Also her red dress during the sitting interview is nice. Perhaps I'm being too critical but I think her attitude is crap. Am I out of line here?

[@faze0ne844]

they let the deviant express themselves too much, this needs to stop , especially when they depict children that way ..

[@bathroomsexmurder]

Lol what are you on about

[@hugholiveiro2081]

If you have to explain a work of art.....you have failed (with all due respect) EVERYONE!!!! is capable of creating an image on a blank space and tell a story....'''''CREATIVITY'''' IS MORE THAN JUST THAT..........

[@jessmelgoza1423]

Awfull ...

[@do5227]

🤣