RAPHAELA SIMON

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Selected Works

Bett (Bed), 2023

oil on canvas
220 x 190 cm.; 86 5/8 x 74 3/4 in.
Photo: def image

‘Painting is very physical work, involving size, volume, and mass. This physicality is bound to be transmitted to the viewer. There are oppressive paintings and liberating paintings. My paintings confront the viewer rather than transport them to another world.’

R. Simon, ‘Raphaela Simon in conversation’, in Raphaela Simon: Paintings and Sculptures 2012–2022, Berlin: Galerie Max Hetzler / Michael Werner Gallery / Hannah Hoffman Gallery, 2022, p. 251

Biss (Bite), 2023

oil on canvas
220 x 210 cm.; 86 5/8 x 82 5/8 in.
Photo: def image

‘The backgrounds are mostly black at the moment. The colour of the background and whether there is a contrast between the background and the object depends on many factors. The decisive factor is the atmosphere I want to create.’

R. Simon, ‘Raphaela Simon in conversation’, in Raphaela Simon: Paintings and Sculptures 2012–2022, Berlin: Galerie Max Hetzler / Michael Werner Gallery / Hannah Hoffman Gallery, 2022, p. 250

Nono, 2023

oil on canvas
210 x 180 cm.; 82 5/8 x 70 7/8 in.
Photo: def image

Lysiane, 2023

oil on canvas
220 x 180 cm.; 86 5/8 x 70 7/8 in.
Photo: def image

‘Elements are painted over and altered in a slow, continuous process, in which contoured forms and classic-looking pentimenti emerge, the colours of which shine through the various layers and lend the compositions diverse, sometimes vibrating nuances. In the contours of the bodies, we can see the painter’s struggle with the subject, its volume and proportion: she thus gives the oil paint a kind of solidity and gives life to the forms in the constant balancing of the edges.’

A. Holthausen and G. Jansen, Es liebt Dich und Deine Körperlichkeit ein Verwirrter: Florian Krewer, Carina Brandes, Raphaela Simon, exh. cat. Dusseldorf: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 2022, p. 14

Séparée, 2022

oil on canvas
230 x 200 cm.; 90 1/2 x 78 3/4 in.
Photo: def image

‘Simon depicts these figures and objects mostly in shades of blue, red, pink, or gray, on almost always black backgrounds. Black features prominently in her works, where it reveals an incredible dominance and sense of depth, given the size of her canvases. Like black holes, it draws our gaze inward, it holds us tight, it touches us deep inside. The resulting darkness is reinforced by painted cages or fences in which Simon sometimes confines her figures so that they cannot leave the canvas under any circumstances.’ 

A. Holthausen and G. Jansen, Es liebt Dich und Deine Körperlichkeit ein Verwirrter: Florian Krewer, Carina Brandes, Raphaela Simon, exh. cat. Dusseldorf: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 2022, p. 14

Maske, 2022

oil on canvas
220 x 200 cm.; 86 5/8 x 78 3/4 in.
Photo: def image

Hellblaue Figur, 2022

fabric, cotton wool, wooden construction, metal wire
240 x 100 x 60 cm.; 94 1/2 x 39 3/8 x 23 5/8 in.
Photo: Roman März

‘[The recent sculptures] simultaneously attract and repulse us. The oversized bodies with their broad shoulders represent a seemingly masculine power and determination that remains ambivalent in its androgynous emotional state and cannot be calculated.’ 

A. Holthausen and G. Jansen, Es liebt Dich und Deine Körperlichkeit ein Verwirrter: Florian Krewer, Carina Brandes, Raphaela Simon, exh. cat. Dusseldorf: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 2022, p. 14

Rosa Block, 2022

oil on canvas
180 x 230 cm.; 70 7/8 x 90 1/2 in.
Photo: def image

‘The figurative and the abstract do not have to be mutually exclusive. I need both, they feed each other. The abstract is very important for me because it allows me to paint intuitively, without the rules dictated by objects from reality.’

R. Simon, ‘Raphaela Simon in conversation’, in Raphaela Simon: Paintings and Sculptures 2012–2022, Berlin: Galerie Max Hetzler / Michael Werner Gallery / Hannah Hoffman Gallery, 2022, p. 250

Baby, 2022

oil on canvas
220 x 190 cm.; 86 5/8 x 74 3/4 in.
Photo: Roman März

‘In her works we see portraits of people and things, a physicality that is almost sculptural. They are titled after common objects and subjects such as Baby, Eistentür (iron door), and Zuckerwürfel (sugar cube), which points to a latent figurative potential.’

A. Holthausen and G. Jansen, Es liebt Dich und Deine Körperlichkeit ein Verwirrter: Florian Krewer, Carina Brandes, Raphaela Simon, exh. cat. Dusseldorf: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 2022, p. 14

Assel, 2022

oil on canvas
210 x 195 cm.; 82 5/8 x 76 3/4 in.
Photo: Roman März

‘I have a fascination for the invisible, the hidden, the forbidden. It is where the greatest beauty lies.’

R. Simon, ‘Raphaela Simon in conversation’, in Raphaela Simon: Paintings and Sculptures 2012–2022, Berlin: Galerie Max Hetzler / Michael Werner Gallery / Hannah Hoffman Gallery, 2022, p. 252

Sahne, 2021

oil on canvas
185 x 165 cm.; 72 7/8 x 65 in.
Photo: def image

‘I don’t make any distinctions; dark images emerge automatically and in between there are also very light ones. It creates a strong effect. In fact, I like to see light, seemingly harmless things on a level with brutal, violent things. Playful things can be as profound as a murder weapon. After all, these two aspects dwell in my one soul.’ 

R. Simon, ‘Raphaela Simon in conversation’, in Raphaela Simon: Paintings and Sculptures 2012–2022, Berlin: Galerie Max Hetzler / Michael Werner Gallery / Hannah Hoffman Gallery, 2022, p. 251

Blauer Käfig (Blue Cage), 2020

oil on canvas
185 x 210 cm; 72 7/8 x 82 5/8 in.
Photo: def image

‘Just as Simon isn’t afraid of nostalgia, nor does she avoid the darker side of life. If before, the lightness of her palette and motifs could be seen to contrast to everything evil in the world, the aim now, Simon tells me, is to incorporate that evilness in her pictures. Her recent works continue to present contextless objects on black backgrounds, but with increasing use of deeper shades of red and blue, as well as grey.’

C. Stead, ‘A Studio Visit with Raphaela Simon’, in Raphaela Simon: Paintings and Sculptures 2012–2022, Berlin: Galerie Max Hetzler / Michael Werner Gallery / Hannah Hoffman Gallery, 2022, p. 247

Model im Mantel (Model in Coat), 2020

fabric, cotton wool, wooden construction, metal wire
201 x 50 x 35 cm.; 79 1/8 x 19 3/4 x 13 3/4 in.
Photo: Charles Duprat

Skischuh (Ski Boot), 2020

oil on canvas
195 x 175 cm.; 76 3/4 x 68 7/8 in.
Photo: Charles Duprat

‘I have to be able to let go when I paint. […] At the same time, I need rules to paint, nothing is worse than “anything goes”. As a result, there is often a concentration on one object. This one object is desocialised – it is not integrated into a perspective, a landscape, or an interior.’

R. Simon, ‘Raphaela Simon in conversation’, in Raphaela Simon: Paintings and Sculptures 2012–2022, Berlin: Galerie Max Hetzler / Michael Werner Gallery / Hannah Hoffman Gallery, 2022, p. 250

Erdbeerschale (Strawberry Bowl), 2019

oil on linen
200 x 190 cm.; 78 3/4 x 74 3/4 in.
Photo: Roman März

Barwagen, 2018

fabric, cotton wool, wooden construction, metal wire
107 x 100 x 62 cm.; 42 1/8 x 39 3/8 x 24 3/8 in.
photo: def image

Rosa Frau, 2018

fabric, cotton wool, wooden construction, metal wire
overall: dimensions variable
woman figure: 190 x 60 x 54 cm.; 74 3/4 x 23 5/8 x 21 1/4 in.
dog: 28 x 41 x 13 cm.; 11 x 16 1/8 x 5 1/8 in.
photo: def image

‘In Simon’s sculptures, clothing confers wealth and status, encouraging a moment of recognition – or, indeed, alienation – from visitors who come face to face with them.’

C. Stead, ‘A Studio Visit with Raphaela Simon’, in Raphaela Simon: Paintings and Sculptures 2012–2022, Berlin: Galerie Max Hetzler / Michael Werner Gallery / Hannah Hoffman Gallery, 2022, p. 243

Hut (Hat), 2018

oil on canvas
200 x 220 cm.; 78 3/4 x 86 5/8 in.
Photo: def image

‘The refuge between representation and pure abstraction absorbs us, condenses art-historical ideas about simple geometries (and stripes) and filters them through Simon’s own standards of wit, fear, norms, detours, materials, mass…’

A. Holthausen and G. Jansen, Es liebt Dich und Deine Körperlichkeit ein Verwirrter: Florian Krewer, Carina Brandes, Raphaela Simon, exh. cat. Dusseldorf: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 2022, p. 14

Teppichgeschäft (Carpet Shop), 2016

oil on canvas
200 x 170 cm
Photo: def image



All works: © Raphaela Simon

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