Artist Stephan Melzl: I like to pay church tax for Pope Benedikt's red shoes

The Swiss artist Stephan Melzl (62) is not religious, but likes to use Christian iconography.The Church is sympathetic to the Swiss artist and is sympathetic for its diversity and inconsistencies because of its diversity and inconsistencies.

Eva Meienberg

You painted some pictures with Christian motifs - for example the Einsiedler Kreuz.

Stephan Melzl: The starting point for the summit cross was an order work to Einsiedeln and the Black Madonna.The plane is of course an allusion to the cross and the Madonna with a child.At the same time, it is a scene that shows a mother's Sunday trip with her child.

©zVg Einsiedler Kreuz, 2017, Öl auf Holz, 65x50cm, Sammlung Keller-Wedekind-Stiftung

The aircraft on the floor and that in the air are connected - a transcendence reference?

Melzl: Yes, of course.

The background is reminiscent of Renaissance paintings.

Melzl: I like to refer to the art historical tradition.The tradition is so rich.It is attractive to build on it thematically or stylistically.And make something out of it.

©zVg Stephan Melzl, Kruzifix, 2020, Öl auf Holz, 65x31cm, Keller-Wedekind-Stiftung

The picture crucifix has something of a Vexier picture.

Melzl: The starting point is an everyday subject: A man with a bare torso lies in the landscape to rest - if you consider the image as a landscape format.The transformation takes place by 90 degrees for portrait format.The figure stretched out on the floor suddenly reminds of the keeping of Christ on the cross - like a crucifix on the side of the path.The ordinary sun becomes a quasi transcendent light.You don't see Christ, but you associate him because we call it up from our picture memory.I play with our picture memory.

After looking at the summit cross, I see the aircraft loud crosses.

Melzl: I didn't understand the picture religiously.In the background, students stand with their aircraft.In the foreground the teacher is on the skateboard and lifts her arms like wings.She is a plane.The picture shows something narcissistic.The woman presents herself and her body control.How well she can fly!The picture is a tribute to the artistic.She has a butterfly on her chest.He can fly and is nice - like art.

©zVg Stephan Melzl, Flugschule, 2017, Öl auf Holz, 80x65, Privatbesitz

How are you when you present your pictures and thus yourself in front of an audience?

Melzl: You stand in your underpants.Either you embarrass yourself under the bottom or you get applause.I am fascinated that there are people who pay a price to live with my pictures, even though they don't even know me.Through the pictures I have access to your intimate world.

You paint about ten pictures a year and at the same time.Why do you do it?

Melzl: It is difficult for me to get ready.I start - and then I can think of nine in picture, which I could do better in BILD two.Often that rocks up on each other.I inspire myself.

Until the gallery owner picks up the picture for the exhibition, I cannot say that the picture is finished.And then I have to live with the fact that it's done.From the French painter Pierre Bonnard it has been handed down that he was always traveling with a small painting box.The collectors had to stop him from being painting on his pictures, who were already hanging on the wall.It's not that bad for me.

You live a withdrawn life in Frankfurt am Main.A journalist compared her to an emerite.

Melzl: This is a bit dramatically formulated.I haven't cut my bald head.But I have my daily routine, I don't belong to any artist group.Except for the weekend I am always in my studio.

©zVg Stephan Melzl, Lieblings-T-Shirt, 2007, Öl auf Holz, 65x50cm, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt

Can you imagine that religious people could feel hurt by their pictures?

Melzl: Believing people I met found my pictures inspiring.I don't address religion and for themselves.I refer to a tradition that deals with religion.The glider as a cross and symbol for the transcendent is one of the people.During my exhibition in the Haus der Kunst in Uri, Abbot Christian Meyer von Engelberg visited the exhibition.I was directed that the abbot was very impressed by my art.

Are you religious?

Melzl: No, I can't say that.I am baptized Catholic and celebrated first communion.But my parents were religiously indifferent.Religion didn't matter, but two of my sisters found access.I didn't find him.

What does the church mean to you?

Melzl: As an artist, I owe so much to the church.Until 19.Century the church and the nobility were the big clients.For me, the church is an aesthetic miracle.A total work of art from architecture, painting, sculpture, the performative of liturgy, music.The best people have contributed the best.For this I like to pay church tax.

I thought it was great that Pope Benedikt Rote Shoes carried to his ornate.And I thought: Hey, that costs something.I am ready to do my obolus for aesthetics.

©zVg Stephan Melzl, Sebastian, 2006, Öl auf Holz, 90x70cm, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt

Melzl: I love the Catholic image tradition.The representation of St. Sebastian in Christian art history was the opportunity to paint the naked male body in all its glory.There is a lot of eroticism in these pictures.

The baroque painting with its pink clouds, the angel wings, that's great theater.I use this pathos, heroic in my painting and combine it with the little everyday.In my portrayal, Sebastian meets a little boy with a rifle badge on his shirt on the painting of a pathetic Sebastian who dies in the arms of an angel.

©zVg Stephan Melzl, Studio, 2015, Öl auf Holz, 65x50 cm, Kunsthaus Zürich, 2016

Studio is a different Sebastian presentation from you.Here I see a clear reference to homosexuality.What do you think about the relationship between the church and sexuality?

Melzl: In the tradition of the Sebastia's representations, there are high erotic figures.That was accepted by the church.The pictures and sculptures adorned altars and churches.The relationship is not clear.The apprenticeship must remain in - but a lot goes in the church, I find that interesting.

The church in South America is very different from ours and yet they are all united under one roof.That makes the Catholic Church likeable to me.

©Maria Bubenik Stephan Melzl

Your pictures are always sold out immediately.Why don't you paint 20 pictures a year and become rich?

Melzl: I want to keep fun with my work and live my rhythm.Even if I live in my mouth from hand and sometimes have to work as a night watchman.

What do your pictures mean to you?Are you a legacy?

Melzl: The idea that it is as if I never existed after my death, has something terrifying.Then it would be nice to have a belief and know that you are canceled.But I don't think of eternity so often.

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