An Interview with Fred Weidmann
Executed and summarized by Bolela Likafu in August 2021
1. About the person
I was born in Switzerland on January 21, 1938, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the third of three children. Father was a chemist, educated middle class with a great library at home. His brother and a college friend had become artists. Mother had learned to be a seamstress, she created beauty. I was seen as a child prodigy early on because I drew a lot. At twelve I felt like a painter and had mastered the craft. I graduated from the cantonal commercial school in Zurich, but on the side I had attended the school of applied arts for anatomy. In 1957 I found myself at State University, Montana, USA on an exchange scholarship. I did an exhibition there so I wouldn’t have to go to art class. I splashed and dripped paint like Jackson Pollock, but made figurative appear in the tangle. In order to train myself as an artist, I studied anatomy and comparative anatomy with dissection. Back in Europe I found the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, Germany, an attempt to revive the Bauhaus in the West with funds from the Ford Foundation; my course was called visual communication. In 1960 I switched to the University of Cologne to study sociology. I also had an assistant job in art education with Prof. Wilhelm Menning. After graduating, I came to the Institute for Communication Research at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Bonn. My research topic was misunderstanding, which made me stronger to devote myself entirely to the non-linguistic. In 1970 I received my doctorate as Dr. rerum politicarum, my dissertation: “Basics of a sociology of communication”.
2. What made me an artist?
It plays a role in my early formation that Zurich was a center of art in the post-war period and the famous Kunsthaus was on my way to school. Later I was married to Angelika nee Menning, daughter of art educators, she undoubtedly made it easier for me to leave the institute.
3. When did you discover painting for yourself?
Painting and drawing are part of my life even in times when the written reporting research has taken over hand. The turmoil of 1968 was needed to turn the well-paid university employee into a freelance painter.
4. What was the decisive point?
I have often replied to this question that when I was on LSD I discovered that I was full of unpainted pictures. I had no other choice. LSD is certainly a decisive factor, but the look into the other worlds would not have been fruitful if my whole life plan had not arrived at the goal. At thirty I was an artist who could also have a say in the sciences. It was the time when the curriculum at the art academies had degenerated and the art market was part of the Cold War. The development of computers got going in the sixties, at the Institute for Communication Research we were right at the forefront of electronic possibilities. My experiments with colors were already a revolt against the machines. It was hippie times, we lived barefoot in the garden and had long hair and beards.
5. When did you decide to make only art?
I never did. I am also a philosopher and a scientist.
6. How would you describe your art?
It would be nice if I could answer that with a term. The early years were very psychedelic, experimental oil painting on non-absorbent ground. At the same time, the closeness to nature grew, so that the glorification of trees and plants took over hand.
From a technical point of view, most of it counts as decalquage until the mid-eighties. In addition, I worked a lot with airbrush, also with oil paint, which was my own development. Plus a WDR film. In 1977 we moved to Paris, I was counted among the surrealists, but that only affects one aspect and part of my work. In 1984 I move to Munich, since then my studio has been on the fifth floor. Marbelling and regular patterns are essential alongside commissioned work for wall painting, films and media. Many pictures, including the most recent ones, can be attributed to surrealism. From senseless preconditions, such as streaks on paper, shapes and associations are created; The psychologist calls this pareidolia. In the last few years I have been painting ideal world pictures with medicinal plants, flowers and herbs. This often borders on botanical illustration. In my diary and while traveling, I have always only painted with the intention of doing justice to the moment with brush and color. I’m quite a late impressionist there
7. The most significant encounters ...
I can tell you about a couple of encounters. Let’s start with HR.Giger. We met in 1972, our contributions to a group exhibition were closely related. We are both in Zurich for the “arts and crafts school”. I visited him once in his house, we wanted to paint together, but that never happened. We met a few more times. I later showed a picture in his museum. (Photo of the picture and Giger) I always thought that his dark fantasies would harm him. I met Andy Warhol in 1977 at an art fair in Paris, I in my dinosaur costume, he was just selling a piss tryptich to the Archbishop of Paris. He invited me to work in his factory, which I couldn’t do, I was just a young father (photo of the dinosaur in the exhibition) and I was painting very close to nature. I had a lot more in common with Ernst Fuchs, the painter prince from Vienna. His muse Uta Saabel brought us together. Whenever he was in the Bonn area, there was always an opportunity for a stimulating evening in my house.
I also got to know Joseph Beuys privately. Charles Wilp had my “Genesis”, a nine-meter picture, hanging in his house in Düsseldorf, Beuys sat in front of the picture for a whole evening in silence, then he said, “You will get to know the color.” I thought he was a dishonest person. He suffered from constant headaches. Wilp was known from a Coke advertisement.
Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, should not be missing from a list of significant encounters. He was old when I met him. Christian Rätsch introduced me to him. Albert had one psychedelic work in his house, mine. I have visited him twice, for his hundredth birthday I gave a lecture, there is a nice, profound correspondence with him.
8. Which influences have I been subject to?
Nature was always the model. Role models in painting were so widely spread that I don’t know where to start. I studied everything that was celebrated at the Kunsthaus Zürich: Hodler, the Impressionists, Picasso, Constructivists (Max Bill), Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, M.C. Escher, of course; not to forget the Middle Ages, icon painting. The Renaissance, especially Da Vinci, the idea of the fully learned artist, was a goal from childhood. I chose the route through universities instead of art academies with the claim to such seriousness.
Many influences in my life come through my university career. Here, too, it can be encouraging to meet the authors personally.
9. The driving force
A long, privileged life also brings with it the responsibility of not just doing stupid things to the world. I have a world theory in the back of my mind from which life makes sense. I believe that we live in an understandable world. There are also some texts on my homepage that are unusually readable (www.fredweidmann.com/texte).
I tried a lot of craftsmanship to express my worldview. At first it was oil paint on a non-absorbent painting surface. This often resulted in the appearance of elementary sights from nature: spirals, waves, shapes, rock and mountain formations. Or, in the regular pattern, shapes can also appear that were not planned, but which are imperative in terms of geometry. Airbrush was my favorite tool, it is suitable, applied freehand, for the representation of great cosmic turmoil. (Genesis). Marbling can also provide a glimpse into the workshop of the cosmos, which can cast a spell on the consciousness worker.
10. Why Superrare?
I rely on Bolela Likafu, with whom I’ve been friends for forty years.
11. What are you painting?
At 83 years old, I’m still in normal times. I list everything that was created from January to July 2021: “Axis mundi, 155x120cm, two commissioned works (artemisia annua, 40x60cm, Bastet, 30x90cm), a dozen drawings on marble paper, up to 40x60cm, some miniatures. Don’t forget some important texts on facebook and on my homepage, including the story of the fountain frog.
12. My advice to young artists.
Actually, I have no advice, because you are much further into the digital age than I am. What I do is stone-age, child’s play, human and makes others happy. Painting will break new ground with you. You will always be misunderstood. The danger of doing things for which a lot of money has to be organized is that you become dependent. A system servant is no longer an artist. And should you ever get into a creative crisis, get inspiration from somewhere, not from art.