from Andreas Raufeisen

Apart from the question, „So what does a picture like that cost…?” the question put to me most is why do I paint pictures like these. Sometimes I can detect a polite shake of the head and the spirit of a raised index finger. Even today I don’t know how I should respond. There are certainly people who could write a whole book in answer to this question, like some kind of pre-digested holy scripture…

I myself, however, have genuine difficultly in finding the answer. I think in certain circles people would assume that my parents are responsible for the fact that I paint women in electric chairs who look as though they are actually enjoying themselves. I personally think that my parents have nothing whatsoever to do with it. My mother was always good to me. I don’t wish to degrade women…and I don’t have an SM studio in the cellar. I am perfectly happy not painting male figures…

To be honest…I really and truly haven’t thought about it. Do I have to? Does there always have to be a background influence, something deep, some kind of message looming behind a painting or sculpture, serving no other purpose than to give the observer a headache because he can’t understand what the secret message is? It should be enough simply to look and say “This has got something…” or “…you should ask your parents what they did to you in your childhood!”
Sometimes I am really grateful that I didn’t formally study art, as I think I would otherwise spend most of the time worrying myself about why I paint what I paint.

Many years ago I had a conversation with a professor from an art school to whom I showed a couple of my pictures. That he didn’t end up dislocating his neck by shaking his head was a minor miracle, and to me it said everything. Who or what gives such people the right to judge what is and isn’t art? And I don’t claim to be doing anything “artistic” in the least.
Just to make things clear: I don’t want to dismiss or insult art, its students or its professors: that would be unjustified. It’s just that it would sometimes be easier simply to enjoy something, rather than immediately to go hunting for clues as to its “meaning” and then, at the end of the day, forget why one set off in the first place.