Featured GiveAway by Werner Stuerenburg Number 608 Go ahead, John 17 1/2" x 24" - 1985 Oil on Linen Valued at $4500

David C. Arbaugh Tacoma, WA

Number 608 exhibits a lot of strength for such a small painting. The most prominent features are the two faces that are watching each other. But the birds rising above the horizontal line with the empty sky adds a puzzling perspective - one that our supervisors are still contemplating (maybe it's a form of freedom?). Every inch is lively, powerful and fresh. It is a nourishing little gem and begs for someone to answer the questions; "What is life all about and where do I go next?"

 

MEET THE ARTIST

Featured Artist Werner "Joe" Stuerenburg

Werner "Joe" Stuerenburg was born on April 24, 1948 as Werner Missbach in a small town in Lower Saxony, Germany. At that time, it was a British Zone with about 800 inhabitants including refugees. His mother (a refugee) was a weather maiden and met his father (a pilot) during the war. Both had lived a seriously difficult life. In fact, Werner mentioned that a "pound of butter" was their only possession at the wedding. This is important to note since most people can only imagine the harsh reality of being born into extremely hard times and actually surviving it. Werner actually lived it and survived it and has such a strength of character that truly matches the strength of his art today.

Werner has achieved success without any formal education in the arts and has no apparent hereditary roots in the arts. He studied mathematics, mixed media and photography from 1966 -1972. He received his diploma in 1973 in the field of mathematics. His teaching license followed with a "break-through" in painting. He continued to paint through the years 1974-82 while teaching part time. He then started teaching full-time, married and adopted the last name of his wife and became a father to a little girl. Between the years 1982-86, he was a free-lance artist and had his first exhibition at a museum called the Leopold-Hoesch-Museum. Since 1986, he has been involved with business computing, VAR and software development and has also established several ezines on his site which is definitely worth visiting. 
 

Number 306 - Come On is quite a strong picture - the heads are more than life size, the colors vivid, you really feel the power of the painting when confronted life size. We know now that every man and every woman have both female and male psychic forces working in their soul. This painting serves as a projection panel like most art, much like fairy tales or movies.
	Number 306 "Come On" 45 1/2" X 58 1/2" Oil on Linen, 1983

Werner remembers people being amazed at his sketches when he was very young. But he modestly states that "I don't know if this was any more remarkable than from other kids." He was extremely fond of horses and knew all horses by name and sound before even starting school. He would draw them in their natural settings but lost this lust to draw when he started school. At age 10, he had to pass a week of exams to move to high school and during this week, there were 2 hours of free drawing. He drew a mother dog with her puppies and a teacher had asked him if he had any dogs at home. Of course he didn't, but he captured the image that one would have thought he already had what he longed for - a dog. He then started drawing in earnest with printer's colors his father had brought home from work. 
 
 

Number 23 was painted with the best light proof pigments available and Werner made his colors like the medieval artisans for this work and has continued to make his colors like this ever since. This is one of several paintings he has painted of two heads. To be precise, most of these works are of both male and female, showing expressions and feelings of men and women being significantly different to each other which represents opposite poles with tension.

Number 223 , 39" x 32" Oil on Linen, 1976, sold

At age 14, Werner finally received "real" oil colors as a Christmas gift and started to copy the works of great masters. He created works from two van Gogh's, a Marc, a Monet, and then stopped. He decided that this was not something he wanted to continue to do. When he left home at 18 to study mathematics in Berlin, he took all his colors and thought he might be able to paint images he actually enjoyed. He read Reader's Digest at that time which had a lot of Illustrations of the Norman Rockwell school that he admired. So he gave that a try and was disappointed yet again. He passed his final high school exam and still he felt he knew nothing about art except for what a teacher had shown him regarding posters of the great art of all ages. This teacher showed interest in Werner and tried to interest him in literature, theater and opera and took him to see an original Vermeer in Braunschweig. He also traveled to Berlin to see only 3 paintings, one of which was a Rembrandt. These short trips certainly left impressions but Werner still felt frustrated.

Shortly thereafter, a friend took him to an exhibition in the newly opened Nationalgalerie which was showing Pop Art. Werner remembers being quite upset about a tennis shoe nailed to the wall. They had long discussions about what was art and why it was art. He then started a series in regards to these discussions with the motto being: "If this is art, I can do better, but I don't think this is art at all." This did not satisfy him for long and he next tried to solve his problem by just "thinking". He felt this longing to do something, but he just didn't know the what and why. So he tried his hand at photography which he did for many years. He was ambitious and ended up achieving his photography goals all to find out that this too, was not really of interest anymore. He was after something, but he just couldn't put his finger on what it was he was seeking.
 
 

Number 223 - The Two Of Us does not represent two individuals in particular. Werner simply paints images of people with no apparent portrait in mind.There is no personal story behind these works and they were not painted for any particular man or woman. It is a very seductive process for Werner to paint this way. He rather just lets the work develop on its own rather than developing it from a picture or with a real model front and center. He knows nothing about it until it is completed and then he only hopes that the painting will tell him something.

Number 263 "The Two Of Us" 39" x 52" Oil on Linen, 1981

ABOUT THE ARTIST

There are many things that Werner enjoys and art is at the top of the list. Art by Rembrandt, Beckmann and Picasso. He enjoys the music of Beethoven, Bach, Miles Davis, Archie Shepp and John Surman. He enjoys literature by Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse and Robert Pirsig. He also fancies women, children, the countryside and all sorts of weather and deep feelings. 

On the other hand, Werner abhors the meaningless wasting of time, casual talk and tricky people. He also finds that problems caused by lack of money can make stress tightly focused. Werner is quite the "intellectual" and mobilizes energy through fresh ideas and seems to always have an idea to overcome any obstacle. Take his name for instance. He's never liked his name although our supervisors think "Werner" has a nice ring to it. Hence, "Joe". When he had his breakthrough in painting, he looked for a signature and he thought Joe looked fine so "Joe Doe" materialized. He now signs all his works just "Joe" and there's not too many people named Joe in Germany!

Werner "Joe" used to create with can paint and fiberboard when he lacked the money to buy oil color and linen which he prefers. But he can do with just about anything at hand. He mentions, "Those can paint paintings were equally fine and could not have been done with normal oil color anyway".
 

Number 565 "Big Mama" is a mature woman. The Romans would have called her a matron. It cannot be seen if she is a mother but she is certainly a powerful, calm and self-reliant woman. Many of his painted women have rather masculine traits, and she is one of them. Men on the contrary are often rather soft and feminine, and if it is a couple you can see this very clearly. This is peculiar, as it is not obvious what defines this femininity and masculinity. A strong mother figure is not a bad symbol: During early mankind, the mother was a goddess and healer and supportive of all life. Still men and women alike are born by women.

Number 565, "Big Mama" 49" x 39" Oil on Linen, 1985

Werner feels as thought he's learned some lessons of life the hard way. "What makes it worth while is not impressing others with it -- but I know better. Painting for me is about being open, being a channel, being obedient to something superior. I am as surprised as anybody else when something alien confronts me. The best comparison I can think of is a dream. It is my dream, but I did not make it. It happens to me and it tells me something I need to survive."
 
 

Number 603 "With Dwarfs and All" is more like a dream or a fairy tale: Lots of people, dwarfs, a witch, wise birds, a sorcerer, and, of course, the blonde hero. They are all there to help him and he will most probably be rather dumb and innocent. But, it is the hero who has to find his way, and all too often it is only the dumb and innocent like Parceval who can solve the fundamental problem the whole country suffers from. Of course, the country is the whole person or soul, and the story happens within and not out there. Everybody is the hero and the witch and the sorcerer at once. They all have to find their way through life.

Number 603 "With Dwarfs and All" 37" x 50" Oil on Linen, 1985

Werner paints whenever he has the time to concentrate and he's become accustomed to the life of teaching where he's completed some of his most successful paintings. He's worked towards exhibiting to relieve his workload as a teacher, but he learned another lesson the hard way: "You've got to be a full time painter in order to get people to exhibit your work." He met a museum director who wanted to exhibit his work, but it turned out, he then had to produce new work. And between teaching, painting and being a full time father, it became quite tough to juggle. So, his wife went back to work as a teacher, and he took care of his two year old daughter so that he'd have time to paint in the studio.

He was a full time painter for 4 years, then began a business career with computers. He continued for about 11 years in the computer business, supporting his family and the families of his employees. He was working so much that he was beginning not to know his own family ! Now at age 50, he finds himself going through a divorce from his wife after nearly 19 years of marriage and he will once again be changing his name - this time back to his birth name. He again wonders "What this name game really means." It is now time for Werner to think about life again and he finds himself combining all of his talents now. He writes ezines, teaches, he's an art instructor, art consultant, art scholar, and he even designs web sites and sells his own work online. These days, things seem to be all falling into place.
 
 

Number 257 "American Painting" has some kind of American touch but Werner mentions it's hard to say why. There are some comic elements, kind of a cowboy figure at middle top, but also a kind of an Egyptian mummy in her precious mask lying at the bottom left. A female face is divided in a bright yellow and dark blue half, the hair dress being the jacket of the cowboy. There are some other creatures, painted precisely as always, but hard to decipher. For example, right above the mummy face, there is a red hand that becomes a couple of snakes, too. He had this painting in his house for years, and his younger daughter confessed one day that she was quite afraid of these snakes when growing up. And she never told him this until she was grown. Werner has enjoyed this work over the years because of its great power.

Number 257 "American Painting" 64 1/2" x 39" Oil on Linen, 1980

EXHIBITIONS

1983

Leopold-Hoesch-Museum Düren (Catalog)
Ostseehalle, Kiel (Art Award) 
Kreishaus, Hürth
Volkshochschule, Bad Oeynhausen 

1984

Kelterhaus Muffendorf, Bonn
Galerie Grochowalski, Dortmund
art Basel (Basel Manifesto) 
Galerie Wallenfels, Kiel 

1985

Rathaus, Löhne
Kunstmarkt Dortmund, Westfalenhalle

1986

Galerie Hergeröder, Bielefeld
Volkshochschule, Lemgo
Galleria Campanile, Bari, Italy
 

Contact the Artist

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THE ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I can't do part time painting or hobby painting, since it takes too much energy to do it right. But if I recollect my achievements in life, apart from fathering children, I think my most important deed was having produced my art. I sure want to do more of it and will work towards that goal with all my might. ~ Werner Stuerenburg