Marcus Jansen In the Land of Silhouettes

Marcus Antonius Jansen—named after the Roman general Marcus Antonius—was born in 1968 in New York City, the son of a German father and a Jamaican mother. Jansen grew up both in the Bronx and in Germany, which he first visited as a one-year-old. His businessman father—“a walking dictionary”—spoke incessantly about politics and history while his mother studied nursing. Jansen spent most of the 1970s in Queens, then moved to Monchengladbach, Germany (his father’s home town) where, as the only child of color in town, he was beaten and bullied. When Jansen’s father realized that these events were race-related, he sent his son back to New York to connect with his family during summers. There, Jansen’s exposure to graffiti writing activated his artistic sensibility and offered him an example of art as a tool for communication.

The richness and complexity of Jansen’s formative years have informed the language of his mature style. His experiences growing up as a multi ethnic American in both the United States and Europe, followed by extensive travel and military service, have provided Jansen with a broad and sometimes paradoxical reservoir of observations and experiences. Jansen’s artistic influences, gleaned from Abstract Expressionism, from German Expressionism—both pre- and postwar—and from graffiti artists in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels, overlap and complement each other in their commitment to impulsive and spontaneous expression. Committed to the idea that art can reflect and transmit direct reactions to oppressive political situations, he paints to create images that open up civilized and relevant discourses.

Jansen’s Silhouette paintings, which feature semi-abstract imagery suggesting social and environment turmoil, are peopled by anonymous figures that engage with ominous situations.

Confidently painted and activated by formal contrasts, the Silhouette series will stimulate the imaginations of its viewers and illuminate universal human struggles. These struggles, which take place in the face of chaos and the aftermath of tumultuous events are meant to capture and stimulate viewers. As Janson explains, “The human silhouettes serve objectively and allow space to challenge emotions, intellect, and imagination of the inner self without filters.” Looking at a few key works in this series offers clues as to how the paintings and their implied narratives might be best understood.

In His Story, a partial figure in an 18th century jacket strides through a darkly ambiguous painted hallway. The figure’s head—a rough silhouette with a single oval blue eye—offers no particular clues to the man’s identity. Set off by a bright yellow square, a broomstick nose and floating horizontal tie disrupt any sense of solemnity, adding hints of humor and irrationality. A band of deep red, disrupted only by a skirt-like form drawn in white, hides or perhaps completes the portrait from the waist down. Any attempt to detect a coherent theme in the portrait only raises more questions: is the figure’s “story” being told by the black brushstroke seen under and through his arm? Ultimately, “His Story” offers only hints—of identity, history, and power—presenting an image that subverts and challenges rational assumptions.

Loot, I Shoot demonstrates Jansen’s ability to create evocative settings with improvised brushwork and forms. Dominated by a flotilla of painted detritus, the composition presents a scene of ruination that alternates between vibrancy and darkness. Is this perhaps the aftermath of extreme weather and/or environmental catastrophe? Three tiny silhouetted figures peer, tug at a rope, and hang from above, activating and humanizing the situation. Framed by a horizontal flow of murky brown below and diagonals of yellow and pink on each side, the painting has a strange theatrical grandeur. Both the title and the word LOOT—which appears in red letters on a ragged white triangle—tell us that this scenario involves social collapse, but Janson has no interest in telling us when or where it might be happening. Jansen’s paintings reflect images generated by his subconscious and should be seen as dreamscapes, not documentaries.

The works presented In the Land of the Silhouettes offer glimpses into the fluid and uncensored imagination of one of the most exciting artists at work today. Jansen’s challenging and paradoxical silhouette paintings take us into worlds of power and possibility that transcend time and place and ask us to recognize aspects of our own experiences. His works are full of perceptions—not judgements—that offer opportunities to think freely and deeply about the forces that surround our lives and actions.

—  John Seed, art writer and curator

John Seed is a California-based art writer and curator. He is also the author of  Disrupted Realism: Paintings for a Distracted World and More Disruption: Representational Art in Flux which will be released in the fall of 2023.

阿尔敏·莱希—上海即将荣幸呈现马库斯·詹森全新个展《剪影之境》，展期为2023年3月17日至4月29日。《剪影之境》是艺术家在中国的首次展览，将呈现其全新系列作品。该系列独特且混合的风格，将姿态抽象（gestural abstraction）和涂鸦书写手法相融入富有活力的超现实叙事中。

艺术家马库斯·安东尼乌斯·詹森（Marcus Antonius Jansen）是以古罗马将军马库斯·安东尼斯（Marcus Antonius）的名字命名，并于1968年出生于美国纽约，其父母分别来自德国和牙买加。自他一岁起首次去往德国后，詹森便在纽约布朗克斯区与德国两地之间长大。他的商人父亲如同“活字典”一般，经常谈论政治和历史，而他的母亲则专修护理学。在70年代，詹森的大部分童年时光都在纽约皇后区度过，而随后他搬到其父的德国故乡 —— 门兴格拉德巴赫。作为镇上唯一的有色人种儿童，他在那里屡屡遭到霸凌。 当詹森的父亲意识到这些事件与种族有关时，他便将儿子送回纽约。在那里，詹森接触到涂鸦并激发了对艺术的敏锐感知，并为他提供了一个将艺术作为交流工具的典范。

詹森复杂且丰富多彩的成长岁月，为他往后趋于成熟的创作风格注入了独特的艺术语言。作为一名多族裔的美国人，詹森在美国和欧洲的成长经历，以及随后四处旅行和服兵役的经历，皆为艺术家提供了广博以及时而充满矛盾的观察与经验宝库。 詹森的艺术灵感源于抽象表现主义、战前及战后德国表现主义（pre-and postwar German Expressionism），以及纽约、巴黎、阿姆斯特丹和布鲁塞尔的涂鸦艺术家们。这些不同的灵感元素通过相互重叠与补充，共同实现冲动且随心所欲的表达。 詹森也因此坚信艺术能够直接反映和传递对压迫性政治局势的回应，并希望通过绘画中的图像，打开文明且有价值的公共话语。

詹森的“剪影”系列作品，以半抽象的元素为特色，暗示社会和环境的动荡，画中的人物皆为匿名者，被牵扯入充满不祥预兆的场景。“剪影”系列以坚定的笔触，激发出充满对比形式的绘画语言，并启发着观众的想象力，阐明普世的人类斗争与挣扎。这些挣扎与斗争，发生在直面战争与动荡事件时以及事后的余波中，旨在吸引目光并引发观众的省思。正如詹森解释道：“人形轮廓客观地服务于观众视角，并同时提供了用以挑战情感、理解能力和自我想象的真实空间。”该系列中的几件关键作品，便能很好地提供线索用以理解詹森此次的绘画作品及其中所隐含的叙事。

在《他的故事》中，一名身穿18世纪古装夹克，只呈现局部身体的人物，大步穿过一条涂有模糊色彩的黑色走廊。这名男子的头部由粗糙轮廓勾勒，只有一只椭圆形的蓝色眼睛，没有任何其他关于该男子身份的线索。在明亮黄色方形衬托下，扫帚般的长鼻子和漂浮的水平领带打破了画中的严肃感，并增添些许幽默和非理性的暗示。画面中的一条深红带子，只单独被一条白色的裙状图案中断，并从腰部以下隐藏了或是成型了该人物肖像。任何试图在这幅肖像画中发现连贯主题的尝试都只会引发更多的提问： 人物的“故事”是否是通过手臂下方的黑色笔触来讲述的？最终，《他的故事》只提供了关于身份、历史和权力的隐晦暗示，并呈现出一种颠覆和挑战理性假设的人物形象。

《战利品》则展现了詹森即兴的笔触和形式，以及于画布上创造出引人遐想的场景的能力。这幅作品围绕一簇彩绘的碎屑展开，呈现出游走在活力奔放和暗黑氛围之间的毁灭性景象。难道这是描绘极端天气和/或环境灾难的后果吗？三个身材矮小的人形剪影拉扯着绳子，从上方垂掉下来，激活了并为这一场景增添人气。画面下方则是一道水平的深棕色，两侧则有着黄色和粉色的对角线，使得画作透出古怪的戏剧性宏伟叙事。同时出现在标题以及画中残破的白色三角形上的红色字母“LOOT”（打劫）都向我们述说着，这幅场景所涉及的社会崩溃与瓦解，但詹森并没有兴趣告诉我们这场灾难将会于何时或何地发生。詹森的画作反映了他于潜意识中应运而生的图像，更应该被视为梦境，而不是纪录片。

《剪影之境》中的作品让我们得以窥见当今最令人感到振奋的艺术家之一，其笔下行云流水和未经加以修饰的想象力。詹森富有挑战性和充满矛盾的剪影画，将我们带入超越时间和地点，充满可能性和力量的世界，并期待我们能从中找寻到与自身经历共鸣的片刻。其作品充满了洞察感知而不批判，并提供观众一个机会，自由且深入的思考影响我们日常生活与行动的观念与力量。

文/约翰·锡德，艺术写作者、策展人

约翰·锡德是一位加州艺术写作者和策展人，其著有《分裂的现实主义：繁杂现世的绘画》（“Disrupted Realism: Paintings for a Distracted World）以及即将于2023 年秋季出版的《更多分裂：流动中具象艺术》（More Disruption: Representational Art in Flux）。