Hiroyuki Masuyama in Art Museum Solingen

03/19 until 04/24/2022
TIME TRAVEL 1817 – 2022

Friederich August De Leuw (1817 – 1888) and Hiroyuki Masuyama (*1968)

Pictures from the 19th century by the painter Friedrich August de Leuw from Gräfrath are juxtaposed with works by Hiroyuki Masuyama, who edited his photographs digitally in the 21st century.
Both artists studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. The artist, born in Japan in 1968, was looking for the same landscape models as De Leuw, which he reproduces in a contemporary manner using digital technology.

The well-known rock "Rheingrafenstein" on the Nahe served as a motif for numerous painters of the Romantic era. Friedrich August De Leuw was in this striking place to paint in 1876. At the same time, William Turner was staying there to sketch in nature.

Hiroyuki Masuyama photographed the rock from the same perspective as 19th century painters. He combined hundreds of digital photographs into one image, which, with the help of light and lightboxes, achieves a spectacular effect. In addition to the art-historical analysis of the various epochs, Hiroyuki Masuyama addresses the aesthetics of landscape. How does the emotional relationship between humans and nature differ and how does it compare over the centuries? The comparison of the two positions opens up numerous exciting perspectives and focuses on profound topics: What connects the digitally shaped people with the romanticism of the 19th century? Why is the longing for landscape and nature a basic human need throughout the ages? How does art as a medium of expression convey this feeling in the present? The exhibition provides answers that can be experienced rationally and emotionally and broaden the horizon.

A spectacular exhibit by the Düsseldorf artist Hiroyuki Masuyama in the "Time Travel" exhibition is a large wooden sphere made up of many thousands of wooden triangles. When you sit in it and close the entrance hatch, light falls inside through 30,000 small and large holes. The light inlets are arranged like the stars in the universe.