FINAL TRACES OF THE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS
Caro Jost
Caro Jost is a German conceptual artist, painter and filmmaker. The main topic of her work is the documentation and reproduction of time, remarkable places and events, which are meaningful to art history or to her personally. Therefore, in 2000, the artist started her global project “Streetprints”, which is based on real imprints of street and pavement reliefs on canvas; a specific method for making invisible traces of the past visible again, depicting them authentically and placing them in a current, contemporary context.
The movement of Abstract Expressionism, which emerged in New York in the second part of the 20th century, undeniably had a great impact on the development of art and became the subject of interest for Caro Jost. She visited the former studios of Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Peggy Guggenheim, Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Adolph Gottlieb, Franz Kline, Barnett Newman and Ad Reinhardt, discovered traces, made “Streetprints” and film recordings on location. These efforts resulted in the documentary “Final Traces of the Abstract Expressionists”.
The artist considers her work is about time, movement, ephemerality and the unwinnable attempts to keep the moment for the eternity. Caro Jost does not document it through realistic photography, drawings or cartographic recording. Rather, she conceptualises the relicts of the past into an abstract image.
Through the wall installation, pictorial works, the “Streetprints” and her documentary film, the artist captures the former places where Mark Rothko was active in New York.
In addition to numerous international exhibitions and projects, artwork by Caro Jost can be found in notable public collections, such as Jumex Collection (Mexico City), ICC Collection (Athens & Munich), Chelsea Art Museum (New York), Colby Museum (Maine), Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus, (Munich), MoMA archives (New York) and Guggenheim archives (Venice).
Tatjana Černova
