195 - ARNO RINK

ARNO RINK (1940 Schlotheim – 2017 Leipzig) Self-Portrait, 1982 Oil on wood panel. 59.5 x 37 cm. Framed. Signed and dated (19)82 lower left. Catalog No.: G 82_7 Arno Rink studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig beginning in 1962, under Werner Tübke and Bernhard Heisig, among others, and later served there as a lecturer, professor, and ultimately rector. As the teacher of Neo Rauch, Michael Triegel, and David Schnell, he is regarded as a pioneer of the New Leipzig School. His own painting is characterized by an expressive, figurative style. Depicted here is a self-portrait that eludes self-representation. Rink portrays himself as a man marked by life—a high forehead with deep wrinkles, sunken eyes, and a graying beard. His head is not turned toward the viewer but is turned to the side, almost in profile—this posture alone is an initial form of turning away, even before the gaze itself becomes a question. One cannot really see the eyes; either they are closed, or the gaze is directed so far downward that the viewer cannot follow it. The fact that a self-portrait presupposes a glance into the mirror makes this turning away a conscious decision: Rink looks at himself and does not let us see what he sees. A black bar looms over everything. It runs diagonally from the top left across the ear, cheek, beard, and neck until it exits the picture; it does not follow the shape of the head and remains flat on the surface—a line with which the painter crosses out his own portrait. What is presented here is withdrawn even as one is viewing it.