Karl Gietl at João Ferreira
by Paul Edmunds
If this is what Karl Gietl is bringing back, I'd rather he left it all behind. I don't mean the paintings per se, but rather that what he experienced over there is not necessarily pleasant. 'Bringing it all back home' is the title Gietl gives to his second one-person show at João Ferreira, and examines his travel experiences in Europe and his subsequent return to South Africa.
It would be reasonable to conclude that he spent most of his time in the bars and red light districts of Paris and Brussels, for what paintings don't include prostitutes and peep shows, feature bars and cafés bursting with patrons. Gietl is clearly fascinated by female nudes and his numerous modestly sized paintings are densely populated with thighs breasts and butts.
From fairly sensitive nude studies to glossy pornographic scenes, Gietl demonstrates an admirable ability with a paintbrush and a boldness with colour that others may not get away with. While he clearly enjoys the process, the paintings contain areas where he spends a lot of time and others he dashes off in order to get onto the next canvas. Of course, this just adds to the feeling that Gietl knows he's being cheeky and knows he's getting away with it.
The most savoury of the paintings (if I can use that word without coming across as prudish) are a series of nudes done from life in South Africa. Nude on a beanbag depicts just that, while Nude in the light finds Gietl playing around with different modes of depiction. A standing nude is pierced and interrupted by another version of herself, which at times appears like another person's arms. A schematic rendering of a light bulb intrudes from the right and stands in harsh contrast to the face where Gietl manages, with only a few brush strokes, to create a sensitive portrait.
On the other end of the scale you find a painting like This is pornographic, which features two nude women and part of a nude male engaged in a luridly illuminated and glossily made-up orgy. Gietl's oil-saturated paint and bold palette are entirely appropriate. On closer inspection you notice an African mask and a scene through a window behind the human cluster. This appears to situate Gietl's painting on a continuum with European painting of the previous centuries. His scenes of streets, street life and bars are a virtual roll call of earlier painters.
The morning café, Rue des petits carreaux and Crepuscule are compelling portraits of European cities and their inhabitants. Gietl is definitely attracted to the seedier side of these cities, but perhaps it is at these extreme edges that their character is most evident. His return to South Africa is marked by paintings whose humour are a little less coarse, and at times even romantic. August features in its background a Jo'burg skyline by night. In the foreground, a group of figures stand around a fire, perhaps at a party.
Gietl is clearly having a lot of fun, it may not be your sort of fun, but there is an element of pathos, or perhaps identification with his subjects at work here. The things he manages to do with paint and painting may well piss you off as much as amuse you. You may, in fact, consider re-naming the show 'Getting away with it'.
December 16 - January 3, 2004
