Doris

Marten

The contemporary paintings of German artist Doris Marten explore the perception of colours and their mutual influence, immersing the viewer in an abstract geometric world. 

Lines as a way to study colour perception 

Doris Marten lives and works in Berlin. She grew up in southern Germany before moving to the capital in the 90s: a buzzing social and artistic period after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In Berlin, she continued to study fine arts, having already been a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. 

Since she started her career as an artist, she has focused on the perception of colour: something the contemporary art painter studies in the most neutral way possible by only using simple geometric motifs (lines and bands). Lines showcase individual colours and highlight the effect of one colour on the others.  

Thanks to this research, she has acquired vast knowledge of colours and their nuances, as well as how they influence what we see. For example, the artist uses blue or yellow to give her abstract works a sense of being open and light, or red to make the visual space of a painting feel heavier to viewers. 

Optical illusions, light effects and an impression of movement created by colour 

When an artist focuses on colour perception in their research, illusion can become key. Thanks to her experience, Doris Marten is able to create the illusion of a colour that is not actually present in a work. For example, a sense of blue can be conjured simply by juxtaposing violet and light green. 

Conversely, when viewers contemplate the Pink Paintings series, the first thing they notice is a sense of pink. However, on looking closer, they will discover various different colours including blues, reds, violets and burgundies. This nuanced and extended palette helps deepen our appreciation of the painting and contributes to our understanding of the artist's work.

The strong contrasts that characterise the artist's recent series (Pink Paintings and Light'n'Lines) are simply created through the expert use of colours. Constrained and "channelled" into coloured lines, the light seems to move horizontally or vertically across the abstract painting to create a powerful impression of movement throughout the work's entire length. 

Time as a production material for a work 

The artist chooses her materials (mainly oil paints and ink brush pens) and mediums (aluminium panels or cotton canvas) to suit the aesthetic and visual effect she wants a work to have. No matter what is chosen, the creative process is rather long and can last several weeks. 

For Doris Marten, time is itself a material required to develop a work. She sees a parallel between real life and her creative process. Every line she draws represents the present: a temporal dimension within which the artist's choice is influenced by memories (what she has already painted) and by future expectations (her idea for the work), just as is the case in real life. 

Although Doris Marten only uses lines and meticulous, patient and consistent strokes in her work, she also introduces instinctive choices during the creative process to modify her original ideas about a painting - sometimes substantially.   

Doris Marten's works surprise the viewers, challenging their visual perception. Although abstract, her paintings can stimulate the imagination by creating links with figurative images and shapes. These artworks are parts of prestigious collections in Germany, notably the Bundestag's collection.