'Uli Liessmann: Life Unframed' catalogue

u n f r a m e d

PUBLISHER

PROJECT MANAGER

Gallery Services, Townsville City Council PO Box 1268 Townsville Queensland, 4810 Australia ptrg@townsville.qld.gov.au +61 7 47279011

Shane Fitzgerald

EXHIBITION CURATOR

Š Gallery Services, Townsville City Council and the authors 2013

Eric Nash

PUBLICATION DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT PUBLISHED ON THE OCCASION OF THE EXHIBITION

Eric Nash

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Gallery Services would like to acknowledge the generous support and assistance of the artist, Uli Liessmann, and Townsville City Council in realising this exhibition.

COVER IMAGE

u n f r a m e d Perc Tucker Regional Gallery 20 December 2013 - 26 January 2014

Exhibition organised by

GALLERY SERVICES Shane Fitzgerald Eric Nash Sarah Welch Michael Pope Rob Donaldson Jo Stacey Holly Grech-Fitzgerald Carly Sheil Leah McManus Nic Horton Tegan Ollett Wendy Bainbridge Gillian Ribbins Breanna Capell Michelle Littman Danielle Berry

Manager Gallery Services Curator Exhibitions and Collection Coordinator Education and Programs Coordinator Digital Media and Design Coordinator Team Leader Administration Collections Management Officer Digital Media and Design Officer Exhibitions Officer Education and Programs Officer Education and Programs Assistant Administration Officer Administration Officer Gallery Assistant Gallery Assistant Gallery Trainee

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Cnr. Denham and Flinders Streets Townsville QLD 4810 Mon - Fri: 10am - 5pm Sat - Sun: 10am - 2pm

(07) 4727 9011 ptrg@townsville.qld.gov.au www.townsville.qld.gov.au @TCC_PercTucker PercTuckerTCC

Uli Liessmann Bridge Builders [detail] 2008 watercolour on paper, 65 x 85 cm

life unframed

The first thing Uli Liessmann will say about his art is “every picture tells a story,” and this quickly becomes evident upon viewing his most recent major exhibition. Uli’s own story is one of a lifetime’s dedication to the arts.

Based in Home Hill, Uli plies his trade in the hardware industry to make ends meet, but it is his creative practice that he is most serious about. A compulsive artist, he doesn’t recall a time when drawing didn’t form a significant part of his life.

This compulsion means Uli is always striving to improve – be it learning more about shadows, spatial depth, form, perspective or composition – and in the late 1990s he spent several years at the Home Hill TAFE fine tuning his skills. He admits that, “going in to TAFE I always thought I could draw, but after doing all of that study I found I couldn’t really draw when I started.” It is this dedication and desire to constantly improve as an artist that takes his practice well beyond that of the hobbyist.

Creatively, Uli operates with a singular vision. He is uncorrupted by the contemporary art ‘machine’, and paints “exactly what I want to do – I don’t paint for Tom, Dick, or Harry. I don’t want to buy into these ultra-modern paintings with colours designed to match people’s lounge rooms. I want to tell stories.”

Meticulous planning is also a cornerstone of Uli’s practice. Any single work will be completely preconceived – including the composition, figures, colours and size – well before a brush hits the paper, and the final work will rarely stray far from this original concept. He will also be planning two or three paintings ahead of the one on which he is working.

When executing a planned piece, it can take him anywhere between six and eight weeks of consistent work to actually ‘perfect’, though this may not be the appropriate term. A phenomenon that surely terrorises more than its fair share of artists, Uli readily admits he will often be very content with his initial

The seriousness with which he treats his practice is also reflected in the working space he has established. Uli proudly shares details about the home studio from which he works, having developed it to its current standard “after 50 years as an artist.”

The crown jewel in his studio is undoubtedly an electric easel that runs along a three metre long wall, allowing him to create works ranging from the very small to the extremely large, with examples of both on display in Life Unframed. An easily adjustable, button operated device, Uli designed the easel himself after “a year of in-depth thinking while lying in bed to figure out how I’m going to do it.”

(His work in the hardware industry might just be to make ends meet, but it’s surely played its part in this grand achievement.)

Above: Work in progress in the artist’s studio.

Uli Liessmann It’s Hard to Beautiful oil on paper, 150 x 330 cm

life unframed

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life unframed

sketches, before thinking much less of the work at the halfway mark. With further work he’ll think it’s “not too bad,” before “hating” the final work, and even more-so the prospect of going back to look at previous works.

His attitude towards his completed works isn’t indicative of their quality, rather of his determination to achieve his vision. While viewers see the work fresh and appreciate it for what it is, Uli sees the history of any minor concealed errors or diversions from the plan.

Uli works in a variety of mediums, though his natural slant towards draftsmanship means there is a dominant drawn element in all of his works, including his oil and watercolour paintings. He is a keen

observer of people, his surroundings, and life in general, and all of these are captured in his iconic style.

He states, “the works deal with anything from paying the rent to demonstrations, and everything in between. It’s about everyday people; meetings, discussions, everyday situations.”

“But at the same time, people will ask me what the work is about or what I see, and I’ll always ask them what they see first. People tell all kinds of stories from seeing my work, and I think ‘I hadn’t thought of that’.

I’m happy for people to get whatever they want out of the show.”

Left: Uli Liessmann Berlin pastel on paper, 94 x 65 cm Above: Uli Liessmann Country Australia pastel on paper, 70 x 95 cm

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He states, “This is your life - from the top through all stages of life. From the top of the world; the love of your life; depression; all the parties you went to and all those you missed; the courses you followed in your youth and the jobs you never wanted to do. Then comes the end.”

At all times, the artist intends that the issues being explored “can happen anywhere, be it all over Australia, or over in Europe,” ensuring they have a universal relevance. That being said, a number of his highly detailed scenes clearly depict outback Australia, while others appear reminiscent of European villages and cities, particularly of 1930s or 1940s Germany – his birth country. He isn’t completely sure why he finds this period so compelling to depict, but suspects it’s because of “the significant social changes” that took place in Germany during this period.

A work entitled Berlin is one of the finer examples of his German-based works, and also of his skills as a draftsman in general. Uli says the work “sums me up in a picture,” but more broadly it paints a picture of the journey through life, with the various levels of the building symbolising the natural stages in one’s life.

Cane Fields is one of Uli’s unmistakably Australian works. The work broaches topics as broad as that of the Australian spirit, the bush, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Depicting a visibly ‘knackered’ and down-beat couple amongst the cane fields late at night, the artist also provides a back story for these protagonists; “they’ve been working in the paddock all day, lived in ‘humpies’ all their life. They’re completely stuffed and it’s late at night – but they’ve still got no money.”

Above: Uli Liessmann Cane Fields watercolour on paper, 70 x 95 cm

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life unframed

Country Australia is another depiction of what could be any rural or regional part of the country, and provides an insight to the many layers of symbolism in Uli’s works. Pictured is a young man “from a country town going to war. The work is based in the 1940s in an old gold mining town. The character’s hat and bag signify he is enlisted in the army, while the pushbike symbolises that he is still quite young. This is further played out by giving him a very young face, but a man’s body – showing how quickly he’s needed to grow up.

The broken fence and empty streets represent country Australia, while the fact the bike isn’t touching the ground represents that the events are like a dream.”

A number of the works in Life Unframed also touch on sex, religion, and some of life’s less palatable situations. While some may feel confronted by these, Uli is matter-of-fact in explaining “religion and sex are both part of everyday life, no matter how you look at it or your feelings about the two topics.”

Lady Madonna is one of the more sexualised works in the show, and is again steeped in symbolism. Uli explains that the work depicts a landlord ‘collecting the rent.’ “The woman in the image is a seamstress, but she has no money and has found herself in this situation to keep a roof over her head. The birdcage represents her being trapped, and the bible is present as a token of something she’s not using.”

Uli Liessmann’s Life Unframed is a showcase of the last ten years of the artist’s dedication to his art practice. Featuring works on paper, the exhibition holds a mirror to society; while Uli has developed his own narratives for all of the works, the gamut of issues they address can be interpreted in any number of ways, dependant on the viewer’s own personal experiences.

In this, the exhibition is not only a showcase of the artist’s work, but of the many and varied issues to be faced and experiences to be had by us all throughout the journey of life, unframed.

Eric Nash Curator, Gallery Services

The work also provides hints to the interesting ways in which Uli paints his figures, stating “in every work, the figures are drawn completely in the nude, before I add clothes to them.”

Top: Uli Liessmann Lady Madonna pastel on paper, 75 x 95 cm

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