In dialogue with Peppi Bottrop and his monumental deconstruction of geometry

 

Born in Bottrop, the same German city where Josef Albers was born too, Peppi Bottrop (1986) studied with Albert Oehlen and Andreas Schulze. At the moment he lives in Düsseldorf, and rides a Moto Guzzi. Thus, if you believe in abstraction and you are also a biker, these two relevant facts might be sufficient to frame the artist’s gesture-based magnified drawings (he uses a staple gun to adhere the not stretched canvas to the wall in order to be able to draw freely with the graphite) and to navigate their flickering prospective set with only three basic elements: triangles, squares and circles. But if you are keen to know more about him, here are the artist’s answers to our Proustian questionnaire.

 

Which is your favourite subject?

 

Circles, triangles and rectangles.

 

Do you believe in abstraction?

 

Most of all in my own…

 

Which is the most inspiring place for you?

 

There’s no one particular place. While travelling or visiting other cities, I’m always very attentive and find myself attracted more than anything else to architectural blunders. On one of my most recent trips, however, I was most inspired by stray dogs – I watched them closely and began to wonder if they were aggressive because they were hungry or if they were perhaps secretly conscious of their own short lifespan.

 

Which is the quality you prefer in an art dealer?

 

I like how mine smokes his cigarettes.

 

Which in collectors?

 

What’s most important to me is when collectors and institutions value my work and place this in the right art historical context. If it’s done right, it’s all about passion.

 

Who is your favourite artist?

 

I’m not inspired by one star in particular, but rather by the whole plethora of stars that shine down upon us from the heavens above.

 

Is there any Old Master that you like?

 

Let’s see – I recently saw a painting by Bruegel on the Internet. It was about Dutch proverbs or something. It was illustrated in black-and-white and was covered in coloured numbers. I kind of liked it somehow. Why can’t anyone paint like that these days?

 

Is there any colour or shape you really hate?

 

Rosé! And any shape that has more than four corners…

 

What makes an idea become an artwork?

 

Sounds like a trick question from my old school director… Let’s see… Hands?

 

Which novel is better comparable to your idea of art?

 

I can’t read!

 

What would you have done if you were not an artist?

 

To be honest, I have absolutely no idea. But maybe I would have started writing novels…

 

October 7, 2015