JAN SEBASTIAN KOCH: MIDSUMMER IN YVES' GARDEN
BEERS London is pleased to welcome Jan Sebastian Koch for his third solo exhibition with the gallery, entitled Midsummer In Yves’ Garden.
The exhibition’s titular garden refers to The Jardin Majorelle: a one-hectare garden in Marrakech, Morocco, designed by (largely forgotten) French painter Jacques Majorelle, who began its construction in 1923. The gardens, which include a series of bright buildings painted with a special hue of cobalt known as Majorelle Blue, first opened to the public in 1947. Following this, French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent purchased the (then overgrown) gardens in 1980 and restored them over the course of several years, making the villa his primary retreat until his death in 2002. The Jardin Majorelle was a source of profound inspiration to Saint Laurent and the gardens are still considered among the most beautiful in the world.
With this framework in mind, we introduce Koch’s work, made in his secondary studio in Northern Norway, where, for weeks at a time, the artist would abscond himself in the absolute remoteness of nature to focus on his paintings. Koch himself stated the familiarity he felt with Saint Laurent; the sense of calm and inspiration evoked from nature, quietude, and isolation.
New to the artist’s practice are a suite of hand-tufted wool and silk rugs; each made for display or even function, under the strictest considerations to quality, sustainability, and eco-friendliness. Each carpet, such as the one shown above, is made with organic dyes and ecologically-sound processes and exist as unique works, (ie, single edition.)
For this unique body of work, Koch returned to older paintings he worked on previously (but never completed) during a previous visit to his remote Norwegian studio. Breathing new life into these works. He says:
‘It’s like having a conversation with a person for years, which you come back to again and again. You start with the same topics… But both are getting older and have learned.
You can always start where you left off… something new based on the old.’
As viewers, we see how both the enigmatic spirit of creation surrounding a private retreat – but also how Jardin Marjorelle itself – has had a profound personal impact on Koch. His own artistic practice has emulated that of Saint Laurent, but the works have drawn great inspiration from these botanical gardens, much like Monet or Derek Jarman also felt by the mysterious allure of the natural world, so much so that he was empowered to title this show after Saint Laurent himself. One imagines Koch at harmony in and within these magical botanical spaces and we are able to see how the natural world inspires and informs his practice.
The exhibition is testament to the journey of the artist; how narrative threads are left to be restrung at later times. How ideas are, generally, cyclical, and how an artist’s process can be inherently tied to their geographical environment. That these older works became revitalized for the artist speaks to that inspiration and his profound connection to and from the land; a tribute to his surroundings.
JAN SEBASTIAN KOCH (b.1978 Monchengladbach, Germany) currently lives and works in Berlin. Koch graduated with an MA from the University of Art in Berlin in 2005.
Solo exhibitions include: If Mountains Could Sing, BEERS London (2020); Shelter from the Storm, BEERS London (2019); New Paintings, Avlskarl Gallery, Copenhagen (2013).
Group exhibitions include: paper., BEERS London, London (2022); Lee Mingwei: Li, Gifts and Rituals, Gropius Bau, Berlin (2020); Roter Hirsch, codex-berlin, Berlin (2018); Black Box, Kunsthalle, Luneburg (2018); No More Heroes Anymore, Kreuzberg Pavillon, Berlin (2016).
