The works of Andreas Golder show an artist mastering a variety of different stylistic approaches to art such as figurative and naturalistic elements mixed with the abstract and surrealistic. His style, as well as the themes of his works, is ambiguous, leaving the audience no beforehand given meaning, meanwhile he interprets the surrounding culture with grotesqueness and a humorous twist. The abstract and the naturalistic, just as the metaphysical and the physical, cannot be separated, but coexists as entwined entities in the mind of Golder.
Born and raised in Russia by a family of artists and art historians and attending an art school for specially gifted children, Golder learned about the classical artists and techniques, which is evident in the many art historical references in his paintings and sculptures. Moving to Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Golder met a more abstract and not so traditionally bound way of art making that became an influence on his style. The often thick layers of paint in his works, makes the materiality stand out and make the physical presence of the material become evident to the viewer.
There is a clear rejection of the traditional view of the artist as a genius with a divine insight in Golders work, but it is always visualized with humour and a self-mocking tone. With comical motives, effects and puns he exploits the paradoxical ability of humour to tackle the most serious issues. Humour lets the artist deal with themes related to the individual’s identity, our contemporary culture and the absurdity of life – without falling back into the notions of heroic expressions of feelings and privileged insights which have traditionally been associated with painting. Golder shows not only the artist, but also human beings as anti-heroes trying to find their way through the chaotic world that surrounds us. Here the similarities to artists such as Francis Bacon and David Lynch are clear.
The grotesque body is a recurring theme in Andreas Golder’s works where the body is never idealized. Golder’s figurative depictions are the continuation of a long tradition which since the Renaissance has accompanied every ideal depiction of the body of a repressed magical mirror: the grotesque body. The Russian writer and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin describes the grotesque body as a key element in the carnevalesque counterculture that flourished in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. According to Bakhtin, the dominant perception of the human body as a grotesque figure is defined less by virtue of the body’s limits than its openings. This reference is obvious in Golder’s bronze sculptures, often based on the body, but characterised more by the parts that are missing than those actually present. The sculptures are like 3-D paintings of half-decayed zombies from an old horror movie and shows Golders references to pop culture, or more, what some might call low culture. By referring to the low-cultural of our everyday life through a high-cultural and traditional material, Golder again points out that there are no clearly drawn lines between high and low, realistic and surrealistic, and tradition and popular culture. At least, in the universe of Andreas Golder, they live beside one another.