Tilman

Tilman was born in Munich in 1959,Germany, he is an abstract artist and art curator. He graduated from the University of Applied Sciences and Design in Munich, in 1978, he continued his training under the guidance of Günter Fruhtrunk and Hans Baschang at the Munich Academy of Visual Arts from 1981 to 1985. He is the founder and current conservation advisor of Dolceacqua Arte Contemporanea in Dolceacqua, Italy. Moreover, he was the founder and former chief curator of the Contemporary Art Center in Brussels. Tilman lives and works in New York and Dolceacqua, Italy.

Tilman is inspired by the traditions of tangible art and minimalism. His created objects use form and color to explain light and space, which trigger the spectators curiosity. The concrete elements of the common visual world, take up a whole new non-objective place in his mind. He then transforms these visual elements into tangible objects through a reducing process, as it removes the unnecessary elements and makes room for the essence of his discoveries, so that he can express himself again.

His creations include paintings, constructed environments, but also stacked and stratified objects. Tilman creates a range of aesthetic objects, these include paintings, drawings, etchings, 3D wall hangings, floor to wall objects and constructed environments. His paintings include several mediums, like paint, lacquer and pencils, but several surfaces too, such as wove paper, MDF and aluminum. His 3D wall hangings in MDF and aluminum are laid flat on the wall, giving them a frontal view, while creating new spatial possibilities which go beyond this view. His technique handles means of vision and perception, which makes the spectator explore even beyond the surface.

Tilman has exhibited several times in Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States during group and private exhibitions. A major exhibition of his work took place in Kunstnernes Hus (La Maison des Artistes) in Oslo, Norway in 2006. His work is part of several key publications such as ARTnews and Artnet magazine. Tilman's work is also present in many private and institutional collections, these include Deutsche Bank, Pfizer, Teachers Insurance, The New York Public Library and the Museum of Modern Art in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.