Bordercross
originated in 2000
59 exhibits, uncompleted series of paintings

These paintings show how Jacques Gassmann experienced the alpine world. The ski firm Völkl sent the artist into the Swiss alps with skis and snowboard in order to express the emotion and visual impression of skiers and snowboarders in his paintings. Most of these paintings are now owned by the Völkl firm in Straubing/Germany.

The artist's ogrody technique is particularly appropriate for mediating the effect of snow and cold air. Ink particles and veils of shellac transfer drifting snow onto the canvas. Crystalline contrasts of bright white and night black highlight the figures among the drifting colours. The figures of these skiers and boarders are painted like slightly differently lighted silhouettes. The artist concludes the painting process by covering the surface with a coloured mist which produces an extraordinary stereoscopic effect.

Speed makes the details become blurred. Without speed the positions of the skiing figures could not be maintained. The momentum of extreme speed keeps the balance of their bodies within the diagonals and slants of the alpine landscape. Only strong physical effort can secure this balance in full speed.

Here the artist is not interested in the background and the abyss of a panorama. He is more interested in the future oriented way the individual human being deals with the phenomenon of nature in the inhuman and unreal numbness and rigidity of winter. The overpowering beauty of the landscape recedes behind the overpowering experience and ecstasy of speed and risk of life.

Frank Schablewski, Düsseldorf, 2000

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