Made in New York

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Robert Janitz (b. Alsfeld, Germany, 1962; lives and works in New York) makes paintings that uncover processes, exploring the interplay between movement, gesture, and rhythm in the picture. Having prepared his canvases with an undercoat of paint showing a color gradient, he then dabs on a blend of oil, wax, and flour in a technique that repurposes the basic hand movements involved in acts such as buttering a slice of bread or laying on a coat of tile mortar: gestures from everyday life and skilled manual labor. The wide geometrically patterned brushstrokes in Janitz's compositions also evince symmetrical structures and linear features that are reminiscent of the Latin alphabet or Devanagari, a script used to write Sanskrit that the artist studied. In addition to its uniformly aesthetic and contemplative effect, Janitz's impasto brushwork reflects a novel and distinctive engagement with abstraction in painting in the tradition of masters like Markus Lüpertz and Günter Förg. With generous spontaneity and painterly accuracy, the artist synthesizes color and form without veering into the narrative register