The journalist and art critic Virtus Schade once said: "There are artists who paint forward and artists who paint backwards. Ziger won't paint on a past, but neither on a future. He wants to paint his experiences as they are right now - today", And that is perhaps the most exact definition of Ole Ziger's expression.
Ziger was born the 24th of November 1940 in Copenhagen and made his debut in l968. At that time he painted with an intense, socially critical brush, his subjects often being the insensiti- ve Copenhagen suburbs. He set contrasts aga- inst each other - contrasts seen all over the world - for example, the warmth of children at play next to an, only intimated, cold wall with torn posters. By bringing the human nature into the inhuman environment he stresses in this way the inhumanity of the environment.
A disclosure which can hardly be avoided if you, as Ole Ziger, have chosen to paint realistic pictures. Ole Ziger has been called "the street kid with a paint brush and canvas". It's appropriate, not just because he's always done and said things his own way and as it suites him, but because it's in the streets that he finds the subjects he wants to paint.
Over the years Ziger's critical expression has been replaced by a more positive interpretation of the world. His well-known flower paintings are evident of this, but a stay in New York for some years has also added to his paintings an amazing positive expression. And why New York? Says Ziger: "It's the light and the colors. The fantastic tempo, the melting pot of cultures, the eternal pulsating rhythm. The ideas for subjects are endless".
He paints the finished picture down to the last painstaking detail with his controlled and characteristic clear colors. Ole Ziger is liberatingly picturesque and gives his paintings the touch of irony which makes the superrealism bearable. To him, the camera is a tool and the photograph in itself is no goal. it's the paintings that tells it all. And they speak for themselves.
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