Kadmiumrot; scarlet red, burgundy red, zinnober red, magenta, English red.
Abendrot; the striking sunset of my birthplace in the woods of the Westerwald, the sunset in the mountains of my Bavarian home, the flaming sunset on the Hudson River in New York where I keep my studio.
Lust for life; trapped on an island of love for many years, now I am at last allowed to return home like Ulysses finally being given his freedom by Kalypso. My lust for painting, like my vast lust for existence, will only end in the rich red velvet of my coffin or within the hot red flame of my body’s incineration.
Yahweh - the Hebrew God who gave his people the power to cross the Red Sea, who brought them through the Red Desert, who’s very rage was rightful red.
Picasso who refused to illustrate James Joyce’s Ulysses but Matisse instead created a series of the most beautiful images to accompany Ulysses - which had no actual connection to the book itself, which he never read. Likewise, my paintings illustrate the classical myth of Kalypso, as well as the music and dance, whilst having whatsoever to do with them.
Skizze und Spachtel; I first sketch ideas for my paintings on paper and then on the canvas itself. Between these two comes the ‘Spachtel’, the tool of my own, red fury when my paintings become too dense and clotted with so many layers of thoughts, emotions, and pigment.
Odyssee; one of my favorite versions of the myth is Godard’s film Le Mépris in which Fritz Lang attempts to make a movie of Ulysses return. Here, the red is a repeated theme, from the red sports car to the red furniture and bathrobe of Brigitte Bardot and the very different red of the Villa Malaparte. This is the reverse of my painting which may only take one day to complete but which will live on for my own lifetime, and your own,
and beyond.
Maria Zerres, New York, March 2022
MARIA ZERRES was born in 1961 in Linden, in the region of Westerwald and studied in Cologne and Vienna. During her studies under professor Tönnies in Cologne and Peter Weibel in Vienna she began to show her painting gift, although neither of those two intended to educate her in this field. Her painting was positively influenced by her training in the studio of Jörg Immendorff and even more by her stay with C. O. Paeffgen. She gained acknowledgement among artists in a surprisingly short time. The endurance, which Maria Zerres walks on her painting path along with her continuous involvement in her work in combination with a seemingly natural self-confidence and proper dose of resolution show that her personality has matured here, which plays an important role among the strong women of our times. Maria Zerres lives and works in New York and in Traunreut, Bavaria, where her Ayn Foundation established its own museum (DASMAXIMUM).
