Jobst Tilmann

Jobst Tilmann was born in 1949 in Springe (DE)

Jobst Tilmann’s early works are based on shape phenomena and traces he observed in French quarries. As a result of a fundamental inquiry into his own creative activity, he soon arrived at a design completely independent of natural models. In the 1990s, calm image systems emerged, supported by a consistent structure. The artist connects the tectonics of a clear orthogonal order with the organic movements of nature. His paper works and paintings impress with their sensual balance between stability and vitality. Starting in 2005, a paradigm shift begins to manifest in Jobst Tilmann’s art. The previous dominance of uniformity and order is consciously disrupted by opposing forces. An impulsive, vividly colored painting marks the beginning of design processes in which he responds to organic processes with organizing interventions. Amid gray-toned “erasure,” formal islands with surprising appearances emerge, which the artist isolates through form cuts and approaches as plastic objects of the real physical world. This catalog is published on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Ahlen from March 8, 2020, to May 24, 2020, featuring around 100 works by Jobst Tilmann in honor of his 70th birthday.