#23 art talk – Anne-Marie Stöhr

An interview with Anne-Marie Stöhr

I talk to the painter and performer Anne-Marie Stöhr about her current exhibition at the Saarländisches Künstlerhaus entitled ‘… went out on a limb’, which can be seen until the beginning of March. The title of the exhibition refers to emotional or fateful risks that an individual can take. 

Anne-Marie Stöhr, with a cultural background in France, Sweden and Germany, studied in Gothenburg and at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK) Saar. After 17 years in California, she has lived in Saarbrücken again since 2019.

Photo Credits:

1. Ich und Du, 2023*
   
2. Built, 2024  © Verena Feldbausch
3. Nomad One, 2024  © Unbenannter Autor*
4. Déchirures (My Fortune on a string), 2024
5. Pieces of Paper, 2024*
6. Papierarbeiten (Galerieansicht 1) © Anne-Marie Stöhr
7. Les aléas de la source, 2024*
8. Ich und Du, 2023*
9. Argent argenté (The skin you are in), 2024*
10. Oiseau Rebelle, 2024*
11. TV Jacket, 2023*
12. Galerieansicht 2 © Jonas Purdue
13. Anne-Marie Stöhr vor Nomad One © Verena Feldbausch
14. Katalog zur Ausstellung „…went out on a limb“

*1,4,5,7,8,9,10,11 © Tom Gundelwein

Read the full interview with Anne-Marie Stöhr

Verena Feldbausch: Welcome to a new episode of art talk. Today I’m talking to the artist Anne-Marie Stöhr, who is currently showing the exhibition “…went out on a limb” at the Saarländisches Künstlerhaus. What exactly is an artists’ house? It is not a museum, but a place where all the artists of a region come together under one roof. Not only the visual artists, but also the musicians, the writers, the actors, the filmmakers, the students, because here they have a place where they can come together for work and creative debate.

Thanks to the Saarland’s location in the heart of SaarLorLux, the Saarländische Künstlerhaus looks beyond its borders and increasingly focuses on contemporary art from this cultural region. An ideal location for our art podcast “art talk SaarLorLux”. As always, you can find images of the works by Anne-Marie Stöhr that we discussed in my blog and you can also find the different language versions in the blog and on YouTube, i.e. our interview with German, French and English subtitles. Have fun listening, yours Verena Feldbausch.

Verena Feldbausch: Dear Anne-Marie Stöhr, welcome to our art podcast “art talk”. The occasion is your current exhibition at the Saarländische Künstlerhaus entitled “…went out on a limb”, which can be seen until the beginning of March. I would like to introduce you briefly. You are a painter and performer. You were born in Saarbrücken in 1969 and you live and work in Saarbrücken. However, this data does not reveal that you are multilingual. You were born to a German-Swedish couple and lived in the USA for a long time. Why do you speak French so well in addition to German, Swedish and English?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Yes, because I grew up on the other side of the border and went to school there, in Spichern (France). And my parents were Francophiles, they met in the south of France. My father was working in France. My mother loved the language. They have also read a lot in French. And yes, that’s why.

Verena Feldbausch: Yes, that’s very interesting. You paint non-representationally and you regard painting as your fifth language. What do you want to express with your art or what do you want to say with it?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Well, what I feel is that I can say a lot with colors and swathes of color. So that the colors sound in themselves. And that is perhaps something that is more musical than language-oriented. I separate that: the literary titles that the works often bear, lyrical or literary or funny, but which also often work with language, are actually in contrast to the pictures. So, these are not explanations of the pictures, but perhaps titles, that occur to me while I’m working and which, as a counterpart to this, provide another concrete literary world, which has nothing to do with the content.

Verena Feldbausch: Exactly, we’ll come back to the titles in a moment. Regarding your training, you studied painting in Gothenburg in your early 20s.

Anne-Marie Stöhr: At 20.

Verena Feldbausch: At 20. At the age of 23, you came to the Saar University of Fine Arts, where you studied fine arts with a focus on painting with Bodo Baumgarten and new media with Ulrike Rosenbach. What did you do after your studies and why did you move to California in 2002?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Yes, so after my studies I had a work scholarship from the Franco-German Jugendwerk and spent six months working in Grenoble. And then I returned to Germany and didn’t know exactly where to go at first. I think I originally wanted to go to Sweden, but then I met my husband and then we moved together, he was an American, we moved together to San Francisco in his home town.

Verena Feldbausch: Yes, that was the reason. Okay.

Anne-Marie Stöhr: That was the reason.

Verena Feldbausch: And then you lived in the USA for 17 years. You returned to Saarbrücken in 2019. How did this time in the USA shape you artistically?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Very strong and also about the colors. It wasn’t easy at first, so it was a change. My language skills were okay, I could already speak English quite well, but still the culture is very different and you are very far away from home. And what I found there was simply a love of nature. The nature is wonderful and very, very beautiful. I also went for a lot of walks with my son at the time and I really enjoyed it. Feeling at home in nature. And the lighting conditions there are very special due to the Pacific Ocean, that I particularly love. And because of the climate, it also flowers two or three times a year. And all these plants that we have here as house plants or as garden plants, grow wild there. So kala lilies bloom everywhere in spring and bougainvilleas are huge. And there are simply so many colors. And then there’s the blue sky, then the “Painted Ladies”, the houses of San Francisco. All of this had a huge impact on me, shaped me in terms of color and then flowed quite directly into my images.

Verena Feldbausch: So if you compare your work that you were doing in Germany, i.e. before your stay in California, with those afterwards, do you see a real color variance?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Yes, absolutely. My color palette has changed a lot. It has to be said that I had worked with sulphur for years, also during my studies, and then began to work with ink on paper. And there it was very much carried by black ink with color nuances. Then I also made installations where I painted strips of color and my drawings hung in it. And when my son was very small, I drew a lot because it was just easier. So in the times when I didn’t have to look after him when he was a baby, there I was able to produce small-format drawings very quickly and I didn’t even paint. So it was always less color, it was very reduced and then on large-format paper webs I still had a lot of white space, even when I started using more and more colored ink. And yes, that then slowly changed to the colored inks that I still use today. I was still using them, but they gradually became stronger and stronger.

Verena Feldbausch: Back in Saarbrücken in 2019, what was it like for you to live and work in Germany again? And how did you regain your artistic footing here?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Well, I had it already planned a bit in advance in the USA and thought, that I will probably go back to Europe, either to Sweden or to Germany and then I think I started exhibiting once in Sweden in 2015, then in Germany, then Sweden again, then Germany again, in order to smooth the way, to make it easier for me to return, but also to reconnect with artist friends. The thread was never broken with some of them, so it was a soft landing. And the fact that I studied here and that many of my fellow students are still here, the connection was relatively simple. That helped a lot and it was very, very nice to find each other again.

I found that the working conditions here in Germany, in Europe of course, are very good, much better than in the USA and that was great. That was easy, you have to say, that’s great, because in the USA there is simply no funding opportunities for the artists in midfield, no houses like the Künstlerhaus now and so on, which are subsidized and not a studio house like the Kuba (Kulturbahnhof). And that is very important. And that the artists are supported so that they can also do their work and are also perceived. And that did me a lot of good. Which, well, otherwise it’s of course very different when you move from one country to the next. And 17 years is almost a lifetime. I’m very influenced by California and have also become different. And I’m missing a lot there too.

Verena Feldbausch: Are you there regularly, back in California and visiting friends?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: I wish I could do it more regularly, but that’s a question of cost.

Verena Feldbausch: Yes, of course. You’ve also been a member of the Saarland Artists’ Association since 2017.

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Yes.

Verena Feldbausch: And you were also active here at the Künstlerhaus, I think.

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Exactly, I was on the board for two years. Yes, I liked that very much. I thought that was very nice, also in terms of cultural policy and to get something going together with other artists and with writers.

Verena Feldbausch: In your current exhibition at the Saarländisches Künstlerhaus, you are showing six large-format abstract paintings on canvas. And the title of the exhibition “…went out on a limb” translates as “…took a risk or “…leaned too far out of the window”. What are you referring to and what risks do you take in your painting?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: So the first thing I’m referring to is, of course, my move from the USA to here, Germany, to Europe. Because it’s a huge risk and that was a very difficult decision to make. I didn’t sleep for weeks. I could just as easily have stayed there, and it would have been good if I had stayed there. It turned out well that I came here. So they are such decisions. Fortunately, I left on good terms. That’s also a nice thing. Yes, but that is of course a risk, a huge one. And that’s what I’m referring to. And I take a risk every time I paint, because I don’t do sketches. I don’t have an image beforehand that already exists in concrete terms, which I can then somehow apply to on canvas or paper, but it is created while making. And that is the big surprise. And it’s also important to me that I develop this for myself as an artist. After so many years, I’ve been doing this for over 30 years, over 35, 40 years now and that it remains interesting for me.

Verena Feldbausch: That means you don’t make any preliminary drawings, you don’t plan the composition, do you plan the colors?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Yes, I wouldn’t call it planning, but it’s often the case that I work in series or in periods. Then I have a special palette and then maybe an image results from the previous. And that then develops in a certain period and then the palettes change again or if something else comes along that would like to be there.

Verena Feldbausch: How long do you need – you probably can’t generalize that either – how long did it take to paint this picture, for example?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Yes, but I can’t say that in general because it always depends a lot, whether I am or how much I am in the flow. So you have to say, the large formats, it’s a very physical achievement. I cover and prime them myself and it’s physically demanding. And I’m not the most technically gifted person. I’m always struggling with these parts, knocking and covering them. The and then they are first covered, then I have to prime it, then I always have to wait. That’s always the worst thing. So you can’t start painting straight away. And depending on how often I prime it, I also have to wait.
Then the first phase of painting is the one that lays the foundation and that is the ink phase. Then the picture is flat on the floor and then I work with the brush. And depending on that, it simply depends on which brush I use, which color I take, whatever color tone I want at that moment. And when I have the feeling that this is good for now, then I leave it there and then I have to wait 24 hours because it takes so long to dry. When I come in the next day, it depends on whether I then have the feeling of I want to go in there again with ink. Then I have to wait another 24 hours until the next phase arrives and only then does the phase with acrylic painting start. And then it’s quite normal, so I lean it against the wall and then I paint. And because I always react from color application to color application, that’s what matters. Sometimes it comes really well, yes, then the process is perhaps faster, then the picture might sit faster. Then it always depends on when I go back the next day, Does it really sit or is it boring? Maybe I’ll go back to it. So it can, yes, from two weeks to a month and maybe the picture turns out to be then still not considered finished. You can’t really say for sure.

Verena Feldbausch: Do you sometimes throw pictures away?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Yes, a lot. I throw and destroy a lot.

Verena Feldbausch: And this ink, this gesture that one sees, these broad brushstrokes, they are painted with ink, right?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Yes.

Verena Feldbausch: Exactly, now I would like to go back to the titles of the pictures. You often choose literary titles for your paintings. How do you find the titles? Do they come from books you are currently reading, or where do the titles come from?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: That is also very different. So here, for example, “I and You” is the title of Martin Buber’s book. “Me and you” and that really moved me. And that’s why I adopted it straight away, because I also like simple language and simple titles sometimes. Yes, this picture is called “Bild”(Image), but B-U-I-L-T is of course a language game. And that, yes, I found funny. I now have these neon bricks that have been appearing in my work since 2018.
It all started when I had an exhibition in the USA where I put a picture on the wall on two neon-colored blocks. And that was simply during the creative phase, when I was working with neon in the picture and then these blocks were also lying around outside my studio. And then I painted them with the neon orange and I really liked it, also because on the one hand, this brick is very assigned, it has something to do with construction and building, then for me it was also a color that became a material, that goes into the room and I liked the combination. And the picture “Built”- I’ve been talking about it for so long because it is also so central to the context with the installation here in front, “Nomad One”, which is also about the nomadic and building, assembling and dismantling.

Verena Feldbausch: You often have pictures and installations of some kind, which are designed in color, in front of it, also partly made of wood, so now with these bricks, exactly, but I’ve also seen it in wood. And now we would like to move on to the expansive work “Nomad One”. This is a painting, painted on both sides, it hangs from the ceiling and is decorated with colorful ropes, and it is weighted like a tent. Can you tell me something about it? What was your approach?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Yes, I had a residency at Schloss Wiepersdorf in 2023 and that’s how it is, so this is in Brandenburg. I drove there in my little car and then thought about what I could do there in two months and how I can transport it back. I simply used canvas, rolled up canvas and not stretched, but I just painted large-format pictures, as I always do, and then, however the edges are sewn in, sewn in by hand and these rivets are punched in with such a punching machine and nylon cords, colored nylon cords, are also used. And this gave rise to the idea that I could also paint a picture like this on both sides or perhaps stretch across the room and I can experiment with the hanging again. The space, the studio in Wiepersdorf, is very, very large and I was able to really allow me this freedom to think big. And that’s what I did, I did this work here in Saarbrücken, but for the first time. I’ve now seen it neatly hung here in the Künstlerhaus, because my studio isn’t big, was not high enough.

Verena Feldbausch: And Nomad One refers to nomads, i.e. a tent.

Anne-Marie Stöhr: The portability and mobility of this picture and the fact that you can roll it up and take it with you. and perhaps also think about where it can be shown, it could also be outside, that could hang it in the forest, it could hang in the church, that could hang it in the White Cube. That was the idea, but so was the idea of the tent or the sail. In other words, a picture then comes out of the frame again and perhaps creates a space or perhaps also acts as a shelter. Well, because the color, especially in this monumentality, has a different effect. So, again, it has such a power somehow. And I also see it a bit like a shelter, a house or a protective tent. Yes, you can also hang it differently. The same work can also be hung and presented differently.

Verena Feldbausch: Yes, that’s right. And in the first room, should we go there for a moment?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: Yes.

Verena Feldbausch: There are still various objects hanging on the wall. So these are canvases that are actually torn, right?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: This is paper, paper that is torn. So here is is titled “Déchirures (My Fortune on a String)”. “My Fortune on a String”, that came from a song. I was listening to Cat Power while I was painting and that was a line from the song. She sings that, and I just took it with me. And I found it interesting to punch a rivet into the paper like this and then to process it as an object and with this tearing to change it again as an object, as a three-dimensional object.

Verena Feldbausch: Was that something that you had actually already torn up or was it something that you created?

Anne-Marie Stöhr: No, it was a picture that turned into nothing and that I tore up in a rage and then I realized, wow, that looks good. And then out of this furious destruction came another flash of creativity.

Verena Feldbausch:
Yes, very nice. And it’s probably similar here. So what is this work called now?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
“Pieces of Paper”, a very simple title. It was very similar and was then somehow put together.

Verena Feldbausch:
Then let’s move on to the works on paper. Is that also ink now?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
This is ink.

Verena Feldbausch:
Are there any titles?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Yes, most of them are called “Summer Breeze” or a variation of “Summer Breeze 1, 2, 3, 4”. I think this one is called “Pink and Purple”. Then it’s all about the colors. Then there is something with sun or sun breeze, something like that, something floating. I also painted and drew them in Wiepersdorf. The works on paper. Of course, it was summer then and it was very warm. And just this freedom in this summer, in this spacious studio and then to capture it, how the weather and the warmth and nature around you affect you. That’s kind of what you can see here in these brushstrokes.

Verena Feldbausch:
I think that comes across really well.

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Just such luck.

Verena Feldbausch:
We are now in the second exhibition room with the six large-format paintings. Shall we just walk around here like this?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Exactly. The picture is called “Les Aléas de la Source” – “The imponderables of the source”. The title was given to me as a gift.

Verena Feldbausch:
Yes, from whom?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
From a friend.

Verena Feldbausch:
He said it could be called that?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Exactly.

Verena Feldbausch:
It’s also a nice idea to ask a friend if they have a title for it. Is that a writer?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Yes, exactly.

Verena Feldbausch:
Okay, of course, it sounds very poetic. And this picture here, it’s almost camouflage-colored. The green is such a camouflage color, but there is also a lot of pink or rose. What is the title?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
“I and You” freely adapted from Martin Buber.

Verena Feldbausch:
Exactly.

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
I can’t really say what I’m talking about. These are not intellectual processes, but really it has something to do with color perception, with a sense of space, summer, freedom. I think I’m very influenced by the colors that are around me.

Verena Feldbausch:
Let’s move on to the picture where the gray predominates. What is the title?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
“Agent Argenté” – “The Skin You’re In”. I used silver for this. Therefore this silver agent, so as “agent”, silver agent, as transporter, so color as a vehicle, so to speak.

Verena Feldbausch:
Your titles are often in French and English.

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Yes, at the moment.

Verena Feldbausch:
Yes? Have they ever been Swedish and German?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Yes, definitely. I think the earlier works, when I was still fresh from Sweden, were Swedish. So I write a diary in Swedish, for example, but I had now, I got into the habit in the USA, because I lived there, to make most titles in English. That’s changing a bit now, but English is still very present.

Verena Feldbausch:
And then I would say, let’s move on to this picture here.

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
It’s called “Oiseau Rebelle”.

Verena Feldbausch:
“Oiseau Rebelle”, okay. The rebellious bird.

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Yes, that’s from the aria. “Love is a rebellious bird”, isn’t it?

Verena Feldbausch:
Yes, of course, they do something, these titles, with the abstract works, the non-representational works, let’s put it that way. Somehow you’re looking for a bird.

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
No, it’s not a bird. No. This could be the flight of the bird.

Verena Feldbausch:
Yes, you can interpret a lot.

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Or the song of the bird.

Verena Feldbausch:
We talked about this image at the beginning. It is called “Built” and is placed on this paving stone in neon. And finally, there is this one, where you can see a lot of blue tones. So this is ink?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
It’s all ink. This is acrylic. This is ink. So you see, it all merges into one another.

Verena Feldbausch:
And what is the title of this picture?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
“TV Jacket”. It’s a bit mysterious, yes.

Verena Feldbausch:
A catalog will also be published to accompany the exhibition. When will it appear?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
It will be published on February 14. There is also an artist talk with Jörg Gronius at half five. So at half past four on Friday, February 14.

Verena Feldbausch:
Exactly, that’s another event that’s now being organized as part of your exhibition.

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Yes, exactly.

Verena Feldbausch:
Yes, thank you very much. Or would you like to say something else?

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Well, I hope that lots of people will come and see the exhibition. I think color absolutely has a power and also a dynamic. And I hope that what I’m trying to say comes across, with color and dynamics.

Verena Feldbausch:
Very nice, thank you very much. Great.

Anne-Marie Stöhr:
Thank you.

Verena Feldbausch:
I cordially invite you to visit this colorful exhibition by Anne-Marie Stöhr at the Saarländisches Künstlerhaus. It can be seen here until March 2. And before that, on February 14, an artist talk with Jörg Gronius will take place here. As always, you can find all the information in the show notes. Thank you for your interest and see you next time, yours Verena Feldbausch.

Verena Feldbausch:
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