Wenzel Ziersch [published on the occasion of the exhibition held at the Institut Valencia d'Art Modern, Valencia, 6 May - 4 July 2004].
This is the first exhibition dedicated to this artist, born in Munich in 1965, not only in Spain but in a museum anywhere in the world. Wenzel Ziersch does not draw: he writes the surfaces of his paintings. In his tiny writing, the shades and hues little by little form shapes in his paintings. Drawing with writing, he meticulously and carefully repeats fragments of texts over and over again, formerly items taken from newspapers and now passages from the Bible, on paper, canvas, mirrors or panes of glass to form almost monochrome surfaces where blacks, greys and whites gently blend. The titles of some of his series are suggestive, for example, The Word was Painting or Inscriptions. In them he painstakingly and with almost monkish perseverance transcribes passages of the book of Corinthians. Using a fine pencil or a steel burin, which he "bandages" to protect his hands, he writes, or scrapes on glass, the same sentence over and over again until the whole surface of the painting is covered by a text impossible to read. The exhibition held at the IVAM will include a selection of twenty works on different media (glass, paper, wood) made in pencil, felt pen, ink.