Wikipedia Subject: Dirk Marwig Dirk Marwig (German; 30 May 1960) is a German multifaceted artist (painter, creator and maker of “Objects” and Constructions, designer and crafter of furniture and jewelry; an autodidactic ”Jack of all Trades and the Master of Many”) born in Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Dirk Marwig ‘Self Portrait’ – Photograph- June 16th 2017, West Vancouver, Canada
Dirk Marwig represents the ‘complete’ artist, a modern renaissance man, his art being a lesson in lysergic geometry, a continuous, a subtle yet energetic ‘back and forth’ between Reason and Unreason, always sublimely surprising, entertaining and dazzling the spectator, always questioning the Status Quo. Dirk Marwig art differs from most of his contemporaries in that he does not rely on a single, specific, easy to recognize and repetitive “Formula” or “Recipe” to express his ideas. Repetition is not part of his repertoire. He works by himself in order to keep the ‘result’ a pure work of his. Risk, the search for novelty and the challenge that comes with it, in combination with gutsy trust in his own basic instincts form part of his process. To confuse and to surprise himself and therefore his audience is how Dirk Marwig achieves and maintains a high level of freshness and childlike innocence in his work. His art is therefore in a constant state of evolution. Coming in contact with his work, characteristics such as the unusual technique, the handcrafted perfection, the attention to detail, texture and composition, the format, the humor or the tragedy, the hidden mathematics and creative geometry with exquisite use of color combined with an eternal humanistic “Theme”, astound and baffle the spectator. It is all very clear that this can only be the work of Dirk Marwig. Examples:
Florida 135 Special Gun (Plexi-glass construction/object with 2 bullets, 20cm x 29.5cm x 4.3cm, Dirk Marwig 1998)
Seymour Glasses (See-More) (Plywood, various lenses, stainless steel, 21cm x 19cm x 14.5cm, Dirk Marwig 1998)
Zap-Gap Chair-held together only with cable ties(Plywood with plexi-glass inlay, 98.5cm x 63.5cm x41cm, Dirk Marwig 2015)
Henry Moore on Acid (Cherry wood object, 53.5cm x 47cm x 36.5cm, 15.8 kg, Dirk Marwig 2015
La Gloriosa or “Glorious Decaying Empire” (Douglas fir, Wood glue, wood oil, 227cm x 28cm x 18cm, Dirk Marwig 2013)
Biography and Career: Eldest of three, Dirk Marwig was born in Bochum, Germany. With his mother (Margot Siewert), a dental technician and his father (Uwe Dirksen Marwig) an accomplished engineer in the field of coal gasification, the family moved to the United States in 1966. Due to the nature of the father’s profession the family moved frequently within the U.S., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Rapid City, South Dakota being the two main locations of residence. Young Dirk Marwig a shy, intelligent, handsome boy who enjoyed solitude, listening to music, to draw and to build racecar models, did not cope well with this transitional lifestyle where changing schools, surroundings, making new friends and establishing oneself over and over again became the routine. A dislike of authority, probably the consequence of the constant changes combined with an all too dominant father and incompetent teachers, slowly began to brew inside the young Dirk Marwig. The result was having a complete distaste for school, basically any kind of authority, power or control. Calculating the odds and with a desire not to ‘give in’ or to be “broken” i.e.: to survive with dignity, the bilingual Dirk Marwig quickly learned how to “infiltrate“ the real world with the finesse of a spy. In June of 1972 at the age of twelve Dirk Marwig barley escaped death when a low bridge collapsed underneath the family car and sweeping it away into the turbulent waters of Rapid Creek during the famous “1972 Black Hills flood”. To have “No Fear”, that “Randomness controls Fate” and to take nothing for granted is what he learned from that experience. Despite this traumatic ‘Near Death Experience’, Dirk Marwig loved living in the setting of the Black Hills in western South Dakota. Being in close contact with nature and loving to ride on horseback in the vast and rugged landscape of this unpopulated area of the “American Wild West” catered directly to his romantic sense of perception and his need for space and freedom. To him this was and always will be a constant source of inspiration to thrive on throughout his life. Unfortunately by the end of that same year the family moved back to Germany where his father took on a new assignment in Frankfurt. The becoming teenager detested Germany, the ugly,
controlled urban man-made environment, the stifling “smallness” of it all, the new school, the obedient and immature classmates and the narrow-minded teachers who imposed their little faulty, unexposed worldviews onto him. But once more he applied what he had learned and “infiltrated” the new setting in Germany excelling in art, music and sport, thus gaining respect and reputation, all the time he knowing that he would escape Germany as soon as he graduated. Image: a painting from 1976 below “Geo-Dreiecke”(Gauche and aquarelle on paper). Dirk Marwig was 16 years old:
During the following ten years Dirk Marwig gets to know Europe. His uncle Fredi Siewert takes him on various holidays to the Costa Brava north of Barcelona and it is then that he falls in love with Spain. He also travels with his older friends to Paris, Milan and the United States on numerous occasions. He likes the nightlife in Frankfurt and becomes very popular among the people he encounters while working in the nightclubs “Ice Bear”, the iconic “Dorian Gray” and at the “Vogue”(the later “Omen”). His artistic talents slowly become recognized as he is asked to illustrate flyers, to decorate spaces and interiors for private residences, nightclubs and a fashion store as well as various commissions for paintings by private art lovers. Here are a few remaining photos from that period:
Flyer for “Ice Bear” club in Frankfurt 1982
Dirk Marwig in both photos Age 21(1981) Back drop in nd the 2 photo also by Dirk Marwig.
Brain Wash Commissioned painting 1981 Acrylic on canvas, 200cm x 150cm
Alles Ist Gut (Oil on canvas, 30cm x 40cm, Dirk Marwig 1981)