Dr. James Mann
Monika Steinhoff’s Achievement
Over a long career as a visionary artist, Monika Steinhoff has accomplished a prodigious body of work, whose intellectual complexity and subtlety are of a very high order. She often renders her subject matter panoramically, and the manifold world represented in her more ambitious pictures becomes a mash-up of both life today and time immemorial. Steinhoff casts her satirical and spiritual eye over the contemporary scene and zooms in on social and political issues that are of special concern to her. But the present day is not her singular focus: what is timeless for humanity and its planet earth is also a clear preoccupation. In her art she is able to see the microcosm of the present within the macrocosm of human history, sometimes cosmic in its reach.
Without regard for simple chronology, she ranges through the past to resonate in the present, and even views the possible future. Art historical references permeate her work, usually applied to some current dilemma she finds abroad in the world. Autobiography plays a significant role as well, not explicitly but merely as partial inspiration for the random earthly creation she portrays. Physical gravity is defied throughout her oeuvre, and supernatural or religious beings float freely in and out of her vision. Surrealism would seem to be the chief precedent for Steinhoff’s work, but symbolism is to be found everywhere in it. As often as not, the imagery in her art operates above the literal level. That is, it stands for ideas beyond the objects depicted: it is therefore symbolic. The pictures can be mysterious, sometimes seeming to defy interpretation, but I have scarcely seen comparable contemporary paintings that require more prolonged looking, more mental exercise to extract all one can of the meaning invested in their respective representations of reality. Her imagination’s limitless invention makes this a constant challenge for the viewer, but effecting this fundamental activity yields a recurring delight of discovery. Although her work has dedicated high seriousness of purpose, I find it to be more comic in its essence than tragic. She has a wry detachment from the disorderly and sometimes catastrophic nature of the life on earth she regularly deals with. She looks at the world not as a pessimist, but as an optimist.
As a former museum curator, I would have been eager to organize a retrospective for Monika Steinhoff, had I known about her work in those inspirited days. But that must now be the duty of some future curator. What is certain is that the future of art will take more notice of her work than the present has done heretofore, not that she has lacked for either recognition or acquisitions by collectors. But an artistic achievement of this profound magnitude can only grow in reputation: with the passage of time, the hindsight of history, and the foresight of those who responsibly value monuments of unageing intellect.
Without regard for simple chronology, she ranges through the past to resonate in the present, and even views the possible future. Art historical references permeate her work, usually applied to some current dilemma she finds abroad in the world. Autobiography plays a significant role as well, not explicitly but merely as partial inspiration for the random earthly creation she portrays. Physical gravity is defied throughout her oeuvre, and supernatural or religious beings float freely in and out of her vision. Surrealism would seem to be the chief precedent for Steinhoff’s work, but symbolism is to be found everywhere in it. As often as not, the imagery in her art operates above the literal level. That is, it stands for ideas beyond the objects depicted: it is therefore symbolic. The pictures can be mysterious, sometimes seeming to defy interpretation, but I have scarcely seen comparable contemporary paintings that require more prolonged looking, more mental exercise to extract all one can of the meaning invested in their respective representations of reality. Her imagination’s limitless invention makes this a constant challenge for the viewer, but effecting this fundamental activity yields a recurring delight of discovery. Although her work has dedicated high seriousness of purpose, I find it to be more comic in its essence than tragic. She has a wry detachment from the disorderly and sometimes catastrophic nature of the life on earth she regularly deals with. She looks at the world not as a pessimist, but as an optimist.
As a former museum curator, I would have been eager to organize a retrospective for Monika Steinhoff, had I known about her work in those inspirited days. But that must now be the duty of some future curator. What is certain is that the future of art will take more notice of her work than the present has done heretofore, not that she has lacked for either recognition or acquisitions by collectors. But an artistic achievement of this profound magnitude can only grow in reputation: with the passage of time, the hindsight of history, and the foresight of those who responsibly value monuments of unageing intellect.