Interview with Felix Kindelán
Felix, your journey from urban art in Berlin to the grandeur of Baroque influences is fascinating. Can you describe the moment or experience that ignited your desire to merge the essence of Baroque painting with contemporary themes?
When I first became interested in urban art and painting, I was 15 years old. Back then, I had no idea what Baroque was exactly. During this phase of my life, it was more of a vague interest in the history of painting that later led me to explore the Baroque. Parallel to urban art, I wanted to learn everything there was to learn about painting. One of the first books on art history I bought as a teenager was a huge book about Rembrandt. He was probably the first Baroque master I knew by name. However, many years were to pass before I began to focus on Baroque painting and its predecessor Mannerism. At the point where I realized for myself that these epochs were the origin of modern painting, I thought about uncovering their essence. I began to ask myself what would happen if I brought the essence of these eras into the present day in order to experiment with them. What fascinated me most about the Baroque was the deep connection to the human form, the theme of transience and the pure craftsmanship. I think this extraordinary combination gives the Baroque and painting as a genre its unrivaled prestige to this day. With my interpretation of baroque design principles, I feel close to the roots and tradition of painting. I'm also convinced that a look into the past to the origins of modern painting is necessary in order to open up new paths for the future of painting in the present.
You've transitioned from photorealistic drawings and urban art to large-format paintings that explore human emotions and interactions. How do you believe your past experiences with graffiti and photorealism have influenced your current style?
The drawings in my urban art sketchbooks were imaginative characters. Today I think that my tendency towards the human figure was already evident in these drawings. It's easier to talk about emotions visually with figures. In graffiti, on the other hand, I liked the abstraction of letters. At the end of my active time in Berlin's urban art scene, the focus was only on style writing and, in parallel, photorealistic acrylic painting. Playing with intertwined letters, colors and shapes in graffiti taught me how to deal with harmonious color combinations, dynamic compositions and balance in pictorial space. These experiences still flow into my works today, in which the figures and their colors regularly form a dynamic unity. Photorealistic acrylic painting, on the other hand, was important to me at the time in order to learn the craft of painting through accurate reproduction. I think that a high technical standard of exact reproduction should form the basis for later abstraction. However, I was so convinced of the superiority of photorealism that I initially disliked painters like Francis Bacon. Ironically, I learned to love and appreciate his work over time. Alongside baroque masters such as Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Velazquez, Bacon has had a strong influence on my work.
Your self-study of human anatomy plays a crucial role in your work. How do you balance the technical precision of anatomy with the emotional depth required to convey the complex feelings and interactions in your paintings?
The more I worked on graffiti and photorealistic painting, the more I realized that neither helped me to achieve deeper expression. At this point, I technically switched from acrylic to oil painting. I wanted to finally tie in with classical painting. To create independently, directly and authentically from within myself. Painting photos and decorating the city with abstract letters was therefore no longer an option. I turned away from photorealism and urban art. I started thinking about how I could better express my inner self. Since I was interested in tradition and emotion early on, I wanted to stay true to the human form. I wanted to imitate the dramaturgy and essence of figurative Baroque painting and combine it with my innermost feelings and questions about existence in a modern way. However, I lacked the knowledge and skills to create people freely from my imagination. Self-study of human anatomy therefore seemed necessary to me. Through anatomy, I finally found the tools to create figures freely from within myself. Adapted to my needs. Looking inwards to the origin of my own existence is also reflected in the abstraction of the muscles. I want to look under the skin in order to get close to the core of my own personality.
Your paintings are described as both powerful and questioning, often leaving the viewer to wonder about the stories behind the scenes depicted. How important is narrative in your work, and do you intend for your audience to create their own stories or to discover the one you've envisioned?
My works are like diary entries. I use them to process current or past events from my life. Even for me, it's not always immediately clear what exactly the works are about. Sometimes I work specifically on an emotional issue or let myself be guided spontaneously to the composition. My own interpretation of a work can therefore change over time. "Life is lived forwards and understood backwards," said the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. I agree with that. That's why I think it's even necessary for viewers to make their own interpretations of the works in order to trigger as many thought processes as possible in all directions. As the creator of the works, I just have the privilege of being the first to enter into a dialogue with them. In the best case scenario, I finish a painting with more questions than I had when I started working on it. More questions provide further material for new works. A finished work no longer needs me after completion. From then on, it's ready to go its own way through the world in order to seek dialogue with other people. The outer form of the works serves as a vehicle to support this dialogue. I make use of the Baroque examination of transience and the narrative style of docere, movere, delectare — which means nothing other than to teach, move and entertain. Through the contemporary abstraction of the human form, in conjunction with the aforementioned narrative style, I found a suitable way to formulate questions about existence and the transience of personality.
You mention that your art is influenced by experiences of fear, love, emotional violence, and inner emptiness. Can you share how these themes find their way into your creative process and how you decide which experiences to translate onto canvas?
I was born in Berlin shortly after the fall of the Wall. My father came to East Berlin from Cuba as a guest worker and met my Berlin mother there. They did their best to get through the uncertain times after the fall of the Wall. It was a time of emotional insecurity and instability that had a lasting effect on me. I was a child who therefore learned early on to deal with a lot of things emotionally on my own. As a result, I later moved through this world driven by uncontrolled emotions for a long time. I plunged into a hedonistic, destructive chaos, guided by intense nights, days and entire weekends in clubs and bars. It was a life in free fall, in which the aim was to fill the inner emptiness with synthetic euphoria. I'm aware of that today. Back then it was just full throttle towards the abyss. Fortunately, painting gave me the stability I needed to avoid drifting off completely. It acted as a constant lantern to guide me through this self-destructive time. Painting by painting, I came closer and closer to the core of my existence, whereby the main themes of personality, fears and the associated emotional violence became more concrete. I slowly but steadily grew out of the destructive spiral in which I had been spinning for many years. This complex process developed in the works from portraits to entire figures that reflect the staging of these main themes more concretely. You can't avoid these dark themes when you are dealing with questions about existence and being. It’s about stopping and looking where it hurts. Where escape and repression have long ruled. In search of my own inner truths, I took the step through the wall of existence, into the void as a core surrounded by it. In this borderland I find an infinite source of inspiration. This sets me free in my painting and as a person.
The concept of paintings calling out from the depths of your sensibilities is a poetic visualization of your creative process. Can you elaborate on how you perceive these calls and decide which ones to answer through your art?
New works push their way to the surface of my consciousness through twisting and turning thoughts. Sometimes these calls feel like a sudden Eureka moment. Other times it's more like a vague instinct announcing a new idea. Over time, I became better at consciously perceiving these different calls from within me. The order in which I process them depends on what I want to deal with at the moment. Not all ideas have the same urgency for me. I make a note of most of them so that I can possibly translate them into a painting at a later date. There’re also works that can be a spontaneous reaction to a current event in order to deal with an acute situation.
Your work invites viewers into a dialogue of self-reflection. What do you hope people will discover about themselves or the world around them when they engage with your paintings?
Painting means communication both internally and externally. Through the communication between the work and the viewer, a dialogue about inner truths is offered. However, this does not mean that every work triggers a dialogue with the viewer. Between a work and a viewer, as in an enriching relationship between two people, the chemistry must be right. If this basis exists, a painting can open the door to inner truths. Although I deal with personal experiences and emotions, my questions about the substance of existence are universal. This makes them potentially relevant for viewers who are looking for similar answers and insights. Especially when it comes to issues of fear and self-doubt, we all face the same challenges in dealing with them appropriately. For a long time, society was all about constantly showing strength. Considering how many people suffer from compensating for their fears and self-doubt in silence or through destructive behavior, I think it's overdue to make the dialogue about this more visible. There is no strength without weakness. The key is to deal with both areas of a personality in a controlled and balanced way. Accepting and openly dealing with dark emotions is therefore important in order to come into contact with ourselves and the world around us without barriers.
Baroque is known for its dramatic use of light, shadow, and emotion. How do you innovate within this traditional framework to keep your work fresh and relevant in today's art scene?
On regular visits to art fairs and exhibitions, I have not seen anything that is equal to my position in the combination of content and form. However, this does not exclude the possibility that someone else in the world is doing something similar. I simply enjoy my approach of working intensively with light and shadow, baroque compositional principles and the reduction to the figures themselves in their holistic abstraction. This design framework currently best meets my needs for an elegant aesthetic and timeless liveliness. The content of my works, which revolves around questions of existence and an open approach to dark feelings, also defines the framework of my position. Whether I stand out in combination with all of this, as well as being fresh and relevant to today's art scene, is for others to judge. All I know is that I still have many questions about life that I want to ask through my painting. In doing so, I would like to focus only on my own path. Regardless of trends and developments in the art scene. Basically, however, I think that every contemporary position is important for the advancement of painting as a whole. That's why I want to distance myself from the idea of competition. Time will decide how everything is to be sorted.
How has your journey from a media designer to a self-taught painter influenced your sense of artistic identity and the themes you explore in your work?
As a passionate painter, I felt unfree in my work as a media designer. After high school, I wanted to study art. However, I was initially unsettled by my parents' concerns and first tried to study visual communication. I was rejected and did an apprenticeship as a media designer as an alternative. I ended up working as a designer and illustrator for a total of ten years. For example, I worked for a few years on board games and books. In all that time, I applied for university seven times. This included five attempts and one withdrawn application to study art directly. There was also a second attempt to apply for visual communication, only to switch to art during my studies. All attempts to somehow get into an art degree were rejected. I didn't understand why someone who wanted nothing more in life than to become a painter was constantly being rejected by universities? My frustration turned to anger. I decided to continue training myself as an autodidact and turned my back on academic art. My anger at the time has now dissipated. I'm grateful for this part of my journey and the decision I made back then. My work as a designer in various industries taught me discipline and how to organize work processes. It generally helps for your own success to be interested in many different things and to soak up differentiated knowledge like a sponge. Paintings and drawings from this period therefore contain graphic elements. Conversely, painting certainly influenced my work as a designer and illustrator. But over time I separated the two more strongly. Just as I uncovered the essentials in my paintings, I also had to separate my identity as a painter from that of a designer. In life, you’re torn between different motivations. Identifying the motivation that most strongly represents your own identity takes courage and patience.
Considering your exploration of Baroque principles and contemporary ideas, where do you see your art evolving in the future? Are there new themes, techniques, or collaborations you are eager to explore?
Looking back, you could say that the change from urban art to photorealism and finally to the current style development has revolutionary aspects. Therefore, I don't rule out the possibility that there could be a clear break in style again at some point. However, I basically see my development as an evolution rather than a revolution. My work lies in consistently advancing my work. How exactly the individual phases are defined is ultimately up to the judgment of others. It would certainly be conceivable to focus more on the painting techniques of the Baroque and other periods. I'm also fascinated by the idea of bringing the figures out of the paintings as sculptures. But I don't want to commit to any of this at the moment. What is clear is that I want to remain loyal to painting as the core of my work. As a constant student, I will humbly tackle the tasks that it will continue to give me.
