Birgit Jensen: Enacting Arcadia
Overview

Birgit Jensen is interested in the connection between artifice and truth and the role of mediation in our pursuit of perfection. In service of that exploration, she's created a group of atmospheric landscape paintings, carefully constructed to suggest they might be photographic.

 

The depictions refer to Insel Hombroich, a 52-acre parkland wrestled from a swamp.  The landscape is notable for its lush, over-grown wildness; though in fact, the course of waterways have been manipulated, ponds and hillocks have been fabricated, and the trees and vegetation were planted and are cultivated by a team of highly-skilled horticulturalists.  Bernhard Korte, its visionary creator said, "Insel Hombroich is tended to look as if it weren't."  It's been purposefully constructed to create a romanticized aura of "Nature."  

 

In spite of their photographic appearance, Jensen's paintings are not representations of images of the place, but impressions she's stitched together to convey the mood the setting instills.  Both the landscape architect and painter have as their goal the creation of something perfect.  An ideal that's "truer" than reality.

 

Once, not so very long ago, photographs were indicators of veracity.  Remember the phrase "photographic evidence"?  While the ease with which images can be electronically manipulated has eroded the presumption of "photographic truth," we've become increasingly accustomed to - and dependent upon - understanding the world through a screen.  More and more of our experiences are virtual, constructed or designed.

 

In this case, we experience nature that isn't actually natural, but is constructed by a designer, then depicted by an artist who looked at photographs, and from them, created images, not of the site, but that "feel" like the place.  At the same time, those paintings look like photographs, suggesting the image is accurate, or "real."  

 

Instead of exploring the relationship between artifice and truth, perhaps it is more accurate to say that Jensen is illustrating the truth within the artificial.

 
Birgit Jensen was born in Würzburg, Germany in 1957 and studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin.  Recent solo museum exhibitions include Kunstverein Leverkusen Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany; Atelier Schloss Jägerhof, Düsseldorf; Pictura, Dordrecht, Netherlands; Museum Ratingen, Germany; Kunstverein Villa Wessel, Iserlohn, Germany; Kunstverein Linz am Rhein, Germany; Kunstverein Duisberg, Germany; Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.  Jensen lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Works
  • Multiple silkscreen layers of black blue and hot pink form a constructed landscape of a blurred and heavily pixelated river bank In the foreground stretches a silhouette of the top of a thin tree with several black leave-like blotches
    Birgit Jensen
    SALIX II, 2021
    acrylic on canvas
    15 3/4 x 13 3/8 in
    40 x 34 cm
  • Multiple silkscreen layers of black blue green and yellow paint form a constructed landscape of a blurred and heavily pixelated river bank In the foreground curving from the bottom right corner to the upper left is a silhouette of a large tree branch
    Birgit Jensen
    FOG V, 2021
    acrylic on linen
    66 7/8 x 55 1/8 in
    170 x 140 cm
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  • Multiple silkscreen layers of black gray and hot pink paint form a constructed landscape of a curving river bank. Towards the left of the piece a thin tree with several bare branches leans to the left
    Birgit Jensen
    FOG VI, 2022
    acrylic on linen
    66 7/8 x 55 1/8 in
    170 x 140 cm
  • Multiple silkscreen layers of black blue and green form a constructed landscape of a blurred and heavily pixelated river bank with tall grass. In the central foreground is a black silhouette of a thin tree and in the background several light translucent wavy shapes extend vertically up and down the piece
    Birgit Jensen
    FOG III, 2021
    acrylic on linen
    66 7/8 x 55 1/8 in
    170 x 140 cm
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  • Multiple silkscreen layers of blue black green and red form a constructed landscape of a river bank In the foreground are several black silhouettes of submerged trees and hanging branches with many leaves
    Birgit Jensen
    PASTURE, 2021
    acrylic on linen
    78 3/4 x 66 7/8 in
    200 x 170 cm
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  • Multiple silkscreen layers of black gray and blue paint form a constructed landscape of a river bank. Off center and towards the right of the piece long thin black lines allude to a vine and travel vertically up and down the artwork
    Birgit Jensen
    FOG VII, 2022
    acrylic on linen
    66 7/8 x 55 1/8 in
    170 x 140 cm
  • Multiple silkscreen layers of pink purple and blue form a constructed landscape of a blurred and heavily pixelated river bank. In the foreground to the left of the piece is a faded dark turquoise silhouette of a thin tree and in addition several thin purple diagonal lines allude to falling rain
    Birgit Jensen
    FOG IV, 2021
    acrylic on linen
    66 7/8 x 55 1/8 in
    170 x 140 cm
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  • Multiple silkscreen layers of black gray red and blue paint form a constructed landscape of a heavily pixelated river bank that is framed by two vertical industrial structures. In the foreground are several black silhouettes of partially submerged trees and thin hanging branches the obscure the view of the river
    Birgit Jensen
    KANALUA V, 2020
    acrylic on canvas
    39 3/8 x 29 1/2 in
    100 x 75 cm
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  • Multiple silkscreen layers of muli-colored paint form a constructed landscape of a heavily pixelated river bank that is framed by a vertical industrial structure. In the foreground are several black silhouettes of partially submerged trees and thin hanging branches that obscure the view of the river
    Birgit Jensen
    KANALUA IV, 2020
    acrylic on canvas
    39 3/8 x 29 1/2 in
    100 x 75 cm
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  • Multiple silkscreen layers of black blue and red paint form a constructed landscape of a river bank In the foreground are several black silhouettes of partially submerged trees with a light blue circle forming a halo around them In the background a heavily pixelated dark rectangular grid alludes to the interior of a windowed warehouse
    Birgit Jensen
    KANALUA VIII, 2021
    acrylic on canvas
    27 1/2 x 24 1/8 in
    70 x 61 cm
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  • Multiple silkscreen layers of black blue and red form a constructed landscape of a blurred and heavily pixelated river bank In the foreground are black silhouettes of several partially submerged trees and at the center of the piece a large light blue-gray circle forms a halo around them
    Birgit Jensen
    KANALUA VII, 2021
    acrylic on canvas
    39 3/8 x 29 1/2 in
    100 x 75 cm
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  • Multiple silkscreen layers of black blue and red paint form a constructed landscape of a heavily pixelated river bank that is framed by two vertical industrial structures. In the foreground are several black and red silhouettes of partially submerged trees and thin hanging branches the obscure the view of the river
    Birgit Jensen
    KANALUA VI, 2020
    acrylic on canvas
    39 3/8 x 29 1/2 in
    100 x 75 cm
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