BIOGRAPHY
Kerntke was born 1955 in Germany. Since generations many relatives have been involved in art before (graphic illustrator, actor, ballet dancer, costume designer). Specially his beloved grandfather, who once was an impressionistic painter impressed him in his early youth. So besides his later bread and butter job as geologist he continued this inherited talent and perfected it autodidactically. He investigated the techniques of modern artist by copying their style and finally created his own.
Furthermore he became deeply stimulated by lot of his travels and long term stays in places like Borneo, Malawi, Nepal, Northern Africa, Papua Newguinea, Philippines, Spain and Sumatra. Besides his professional duties as scientist and fieldgeologist he could deeply absorb the beauty of our planet, mostly well documented with a camera. Also some offshore experiences on research vessels during the past years broaden his insider views. Often his family followed him for visits and so he might gave his daughter an inspiring basis for her own art affin career in Munich while her parents remained based in Hamburg. Kerntke values his home and city atelier which is, even so located within a protected landscape surrounded by forest, ponds and moor. For him a perfect atmosphere to become one with the nature through his art. A nature which is worth to be preserved.
CV
E = EINZELAUSSTELLUNG G = GRUPPENAUSSTELL.
2018: (G) AUSSTELLUNG, GALERIE ESFANDIARY, LÜNEBURG
2015: (G) NEUE SINNLICHKEIT, AUSSTELLUNG ZEITGENÖSSISCHER KUNST, KULTURANKER, MAGDEBURG
2014: (G) ALTONALE, KUNSTMESSE , FÄHRTERMINAL, HAMBURG
2005: (E) INSTITUT FÜR LIPPISCHE LANDESKUNDE, ROBERT KOEPKE HAUS, SCHWALENBERG
2004: (E) GALERIE WOHNEN UND KUNST, HAMBURG
2003: (E) TORHAUS KULTURKREIS HAMBURG – WELLINGSBÜTTEL
2000: (E) GALERIE PRO LINGUIS, HAMBURG
1997: (G) KUNSTTREPPE DES HAMBURGER ABENDBLATTES, IN DER BÖRSE DER HANDELSKAMMER, HAMBURG
1989: (G) 200 JAHRE FRANZÖSICHE REVOLUTION, STAATLICHE KUNSTHALLE BERLIN
1989: (E), 1992: (G) KUNSTTREPPE DES HAMBURGER ABENDBLATTES, HANSE-VIERTEL, HAMBURG
1987: (E) BÜCHERHALLE HARBURG
1986: (E) STRANDHOTEL BLANKENESE
1984: (G) MERCATORHALLE DUISBURG
1983: (G) HOCHSCHULE FÜR BILDENDE KÜNSTE, HAMBURG
1982: 1984: (G) GALERIE SCHNECKE, HAMBURG
1972: (G) KUNSTMARKT, BÜRGERHAUS ANGERMUND, DÜSSELDORF
CATALOGUES
1989: 1789 /1989. Zweihundert Jahre Französische Revolution (Deutsch). Januar 1989 Verlag: Staatliche Kunsthalle Berlin, Berlin; Auflage: 1. Auflage, 3000
Exemplare (1989) ISBN-10: 3980216004 ISBN-13: 978-3980216005
2002: Die Kunsttreppe. 10 Jahre – 101 Ausstellungen von Paul Theodor Hoffmann | 1.Juni 2002 Hoffmann, Paul Theodor.Verlag: Hamburg : Dölling und Galitz
(1997) ISBN 10: 3930802449 ISBN 13: 9783930802449
STATEMENT
All my paintings are somehow related in style. Even though they should stay on its own. If my artwork would need to be explained mainly by words, something would be wrong. Looking at my paintings is like communication without words between viewers and me, in other words: a noneverbal dialog. Art has to bei nice and provocant same time, some people call it inspirative because of that.
My art development has been a long journey once started with detail planning with very simple shapes and by using only a few clear primary colors. Since my late youth I have experimented with more complex structures, which today became even chaotic, in parts randomly sometimes. While painting I still play with interaction of shape and colours through creating various patches of overpainting, and corrections. On the whole various levels improvisations direct on the canvas make up the final artwork . Even if I have started with a draft on the blank canvas, at first the outlines might be quite close to the original photo or nearby outdoor nature study, whereas the final result, always done in atelier, becomes a more well elaborated abstract style.
Most of my work contains hints to our enddangered nature. During my travels I got the opportunity for an intense involvement with the beauty of landscapes as well as with natural hazards, with nearby vegetation, with animals and rocks. I became confronted with diversity and extinction. These visual experiences inspired me deeply. I value the present status of nature as a human being. Humans became not only concious about it, but also familar with it. In my romantic opinion I try to defend it against recent man made and fast ongoing degradiation and demolition through my artwork.
As a geologist I tried to understand the earth scientifically – as an artist I still try to tell about nature. I do it in my compositions, but in a personal, emotionally way. I‘m using this medium with a specific, reduced fundus of shapes, structures and colors similar but not equal to nature . The whole nature is too complex to become fully understood by human beings within their short existence.
My oil paintings with its slow painting process contradict somehow the present day fast changing digital visual world. My art müht give viewers inspiration and contemplation about contemporary topics. I like this traditional way of producing art followed by intense interaction with viewers because of its sustainability.
