Images and words: Max Renkel and Durs Grünbein – a conversation

On the occasion of the publication of Laconic Icons – Gemälde und Studien (Paintings and Studies) by Schirmer/Mosel in 2024, Max Renkel and Durs Grünbein introduce into the volume and discuss about the main subjects. It is the first exhibition-independent monograph on the painter Max Renkel. On the occasion of the 29 colour paintings selected from his complete oeuvre, as well as 90 graphic sketch sheets and colour studies for these paintings, which document the working process of finding the image, form and colour. Max Renkel’s paintings, which could be categorised as constructivist art, appear abstract at first glance, but closer inspection reveals many elements of figurative and realistic origin. Subtle colouring and precise gestures convey a very unusual, new approach to reality and representation. Max Renkel generally works in small formats. The title Laconic Icons, which he chose for his book, refers to the reduction and stillness of his pictures.
Texts by his poet friends and generational colleagues Durs Grünbein and Oswald Egger accompany the volume and provide an introduction to his work.

Foto Cristina Maulini

Max Renkel, born in Munich in 1966, a graduate of the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, is a visual artist, collector, passionate photographer and cultural historian. He has realised around 60 exhibitions, 35 publications and various lectures and lives and works mainly in Rome.

Durs Grünbein, born in Dresden in 1962, is one of the best-known and most highly regarded poets and intellectuals in the current panorama of European literature. He made his debut with the poetry collection Grauzone morgens (1988), which soon won him the prestigious Büchner Prize (1995). Grünbein is also the author of essays and narrative prose.

He has received numerous awards for his work to date, including the Nietzsche Prize (2004), the Pasolini Prize (2006), the Transströmer Prize (2012), the Herbert Zbigniew Prize (2020) and most recently an honorary doctorate of philosophical sciences (University of Milan, 2022) and the CetonaVerde Poetry Prize (2023). Grünbein lives in Berlin and, by choice, in Rome, where he was Rome prize winner of the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo (2009).