Marcus Jansen interview "Art as an essential sense to survive.

interview Marcus Jansen, "Art as an essential sense to survive. To do something that lives longer than I do"

Marcus Jansen as soldier

Marcus Jansen: "Art as an essential sense to survive. To do something that lives longer than I do"

Marcus Jansen is one of the most important contemporary American artists. He had his first art exhibition in New York at the age of 6. He lived in Europe during his youth and attended the Kunstgewerbe Berufskolleg für Technik und Medien am Platz der Republik in Mönchengladbach. He later returned to the USA and embarked on a military career. As a soldier, he took part in the Gulf War Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. His military experiences shaped him and changed his artistic world forever.

Marcus Jansen's œuvre has been described as a sharp knife that cuts through politics and society. His paintings are a perfect blend of expressionism, surrealism and graffiti art.

His faceless paintings, a series he started in 2011, are also famous and represent a kind of protest against power structures.

Marcus Jansen says he is driven in his work as an artist by his sense of survival. Art saved his life, he says, and is something that lives longer than he does. As a former soldier, his experiences do not let him go but he can now channel his "struggles" through painting and use it as an additional tool for his vocabulary. In his own words: "Art is the intimate act of war".

June 7, 2022

Interview Directory

ART

Name: Marcus Jansen

Occupation: After his military service and Gulf War deployment, Jansen became an artist.

Representation: Almine Rech, Paris, London, Shanghai, Brussels, New York. Richard Beavers Gallery, Brooklyn and Soho in Manhattan.

His œuvre: Been described as a sharp knife that cuts through politics and society.

"Perhaps an essential sense to survive. Doing something that lives longer than me."

What drives you in your work as an artist?

Perhaps an essential sense to survive. Doing something that lives longer than me. I’ve said in prior interviews that it has saved my life and I’ve always meant that quite literally. It’s a way to imagine and disappear, reorganize and discover all at the same time while entering a realm without boundaries or attachments.

Do you still have to struggle mentally with the consequences of your work as a soldier?

I think the effects of being a former soldier that has seen the effects of war is something that remains to humble me. But in my case I’ve learned to channel “struggles” through painting and to use that as an additional tool for my vocabulary. I embrace and accept it as part of my practice.

Supremacy and Propaganda

Can you say how the faceless paintings came about?

I started the faceless series in 2011, that’s now eleven years ago and published them in 2012. At the time these were departures from my urban landscapes and responses to corporate power, anonymity and secrecy. They have evolved in to a sort of protest of various power structures from men in suites to colonialists as well as victims of those powers as well.

With which artworks did your breakthrough begin?

That is difficult to say since I had several breakthroughs over the last almost thirty years. But commercially speaking, “Creeping Obstacles in Kansas” which made the cover of “New American Paintings” and maybe “E Pluribus Unum” that was Warner Brothers pic for their 80th anniversary celebration. In addition I followed Andy Warhol’s footsteps and painted an Absolut Bottle in 2008 as well. These all were contributing breakthroughs of their time.

"I instantly recognized that art is making something out of nothing and the movement, mystery and vibrancy it brought along was free and captivating."

In an earlier interview you said that freedom plays an essential role in your art. Have certain art movements or artists influenced your work?

Yes. I was influenced early on by graffiti writers and pioneers in New York City. I instantly recognized that art is making something out of nothing and the movement, mystery and vibrancy it brought along was free and captivating.

Where will your next exhibition be?

I currently am showing with Almine Rech at Art Basel Hong Kong and after that at Art Basel Switzerland with Almine Rech as well. Also at the Richard Beavers Gallery’s second location in Soho soon. The Bronx Museum of the Arts recently added a work to their permanent collection as well.