His pictures tell of an eventful life and experience. Born in Kiel in 1957, he was drawn from the Baltic Sea to the world before arriving in Munich in the late 1970s. Here he came into contact with various artist communities and met Etta and Otto Stangl. His interest in graphic art and painting developed from this friendship. Schirmann began to collect paints, brushes and other utensils. However, he still lacked a place to work. In 1996 he found one in his new home in northern Italy. It was not until decades later that a first series of paintings would emerge from the urge of the worldly traveller. In Trentino, Schirmann created the abstract series in the years 2019 – 2023. Filigree compose his paintings through the contamination technique he developed. The end result is a work of contrast, connection and a lurid dream. This late work of the painter impresses in oil paint and natural pigment dark and deep like the sea and wildly torn open like an unruly forest.

The luminous coincidence in the picture
All we see are abstract colour games at first glance. But the more familiar we become with the canvases, the more depth, layers and structures we are able to
discover. The picture remains abstract, no question. And yet, it makes you want to guess: snowy mountain worlds, light explosions of a nocturnal city, quiet summery
waters, treetops in an infrared landscape. The spanish-savy viewer is convinced they can even recognise a Don Quixote on his horse.

This is due to Schirmann’s technique. He primes the canvases several times with white paint. So long until no thread of the initial structure is recognisable. A smooth
and clear surface. Old master kind of work. Then it starts. A few colour pigments and shapes applied in fine layers. Creativity and chance flow freely. He lets the oil paint dry and partially washes it off. He reapplies it once more and removes it again. This process can happen up to 40 times. Until the luminosity is right, until the resulting layers and overlays create the almost three-dimensional overall impression that satisfy the artist. The application and removal technique is
the secret of the play between surface and structure, never the fabric of the canvas.

Sometimes he turns it upside down, sometimes he lets it rest for three or more days. Then, in most cases, it is ready. If it is not, the artist will continue to work. The paintings have numbers, not titles. Schirmann doesn’t want those, and rightfully so. He leaves it to the viewer to see what they want, can and have to see. No specifications or influence. Abstraction doesn’t ask for explanations, he says. It doesn’t need any. Floating hieroglyphs, meditative Asian sounds, fabric patterns, reflections. Corals and flames. It’s all about lust for life and darkness and comfort. About chance and control. The range of associations is wide. Wider. And of course, with all the abstraction, his work is also linked to his life and biography. Conrad Schirmann, born in Kiel in 1957, learns to photograph from his father and goes „mood catching“ with him. This sharpens his gaze and makes him aware of the importance of technique: depth depends on the power of light. He travels around the Mediterranean to brighter places and makes friends with various artists. He observes the scene closely and gets familiar with his own creativity. He works in advertising, for film and television, in the fashion industry with silk fabrics and in publishing with books. He has long turned his back on the rough
Baltic Sea and now lives with his family in the mountains of northern Italy.

Finally, he can focus on his painting.
The painter is inspired by colour and music. But Schirmann works in silence, solely with the luminosity of the pigments and the chance that becomes more and more
important as these are applied and removed once again. In order not to influence this coincidence, he must let go of trying to control it. „The result is thus created by
itself“ he says. And he paints.

– Clementine Kügler

Clementine Kügler reports as a freelance journalist for various German-language media from Spain. Her main focus is on art and culture.