Jorinde Voigt is a German artist, best-known for large-scale drawings that develop complex notation systems derived from

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

, and

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

. She is a professor of Conceptual Drawing and Painting at th
University of Fine Arts Hamburg
Voigt lives and works in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Work

Voigt’s large-scale drawings often emerge from a system of guidelines and rules and therefore her work has drawn comparisons to

Minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

and

Conceptual Conceptual may refer to: Philosophy and Humanities *Concept *Conceptualism *Philosophical analysis (Conceptual analysis) *Theoretical definition (Conceptual definition) *Thinking about Consciousness (Conceptual dualism) *Pragmatism (Conceptual pr ...

artists, namely the event scores and visual artworks of the 2020s avant-garde such as

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

and

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde ...

; the algorithmic patterns of

Hanne Darboven Hanne Darboven (29 April 1941 – 9 March 2009) was a German conceptual artist, best known for her large-scale minimalist installations consisting of handwritten tables of numbers. Early life and career Darboven was born in 1941 in Munich. She gr ...

; and the procedural parameters of

Sol Lewitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

. Yet despite these comparisons, Voigt’s work differs markedly from this lineage, particularly because her rigorous systems emerge from how the inner world—such as personal experience, emotion, and memory intersect with external conditions. Voigt has described such a process as providing “instructions for the imagination.” In 2002, Voigt turned away from the medium of photography and began to make the drawings that she is best known for, which she has alternately described over the years as “projection surfaces, visualized thought models, scientific experimental designs, notations, scores and

diagram A diagram is a symbolic representation of information using visualization techniques. Diagrams have been used since prehistoric times on walls of caves, but became more prevalent during the Enlightenment. Sometimes, the technique uses a three- ...

s. The artist developed her specific symbolic system in the series ''Notations Florida'' and ''Indonesia'', both from 2003. According to art historian Astrid Schmidt-Burkhardt, the sixty ink drawings that comprise ''Notations Florida'', “already contain all the registers of perception that would also distinguish her later works.” The resulting drawings convey a series of the artist’s impressions when traveling from Orlando to Miami. As Voigt explains, “I still took stock of situations, but the difference was that I no longer pressed the shutter but rather took notes. In this way, pictures emerged that could no longer be classified as perspectival; rather, they reflected the juxtaposition and the simultaneity of what I experienced.” Further cycles of work emerged from the perception study developed in this early series. Although formally and conceptually diverse, each of these work cycles shares an interest in making visible that which is “behind” things and capturing the simultaneity of experience through markings on paper.

Views on Chinese erotic art: from 16th to 20th century (2011/2012)

The works from this series combine notation and collage techniques to translate images of historic Chinese erotic paintings and prints into diagrams comprising picture and text elements. Central to this series is a “visual reading” process, which analyzes images as if they were texts. Referencing the Chinese and Japanese painting tradition of capturing a scene in multiple views, Voigt subsumed up to 100 views—each one capturing a specific gaze—onto each sheet of paper, so that the collages resemble scientific tables. To make the works, Voigt cut silhouettes from colored paper that corresponded in color and profile to a particular element of the composition, such as the shape of a woman’s hairdo, a bathtub, or a lover’s embrace. The number of silhouettes were determined by how many times she looked at the detail. Poet and critic

John Yau John Yau (born June 5, 1950) is an American poet and critic who lives in New York City. He received his B.A. from Bard College in 1972 and his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College in 1978. He has published over 50 books of poetry, artists' books, fiction ...

writes, “by unraveling the erotic views into their constituent parts, the artist essentially undresses the encounter, turning it into a collection of visual and written data.” With color choices and notations dictated by the very act of looking itself, the drawings appear as a mental construct with which to investigate human perception, raising questions about language, cognition, intuition, and association.

Piece for Words and Views (2012) Love as passion: On the Codification of Intimacy (2013/2014)

This 36-part series marks a radical shift in Voigt's practice. While earlier works developed notation systems that visually translated the perception of objects or situations, ''Piece for Words and Views'' is the first work cycle in which Voigt concretely attempts to find images that correspond to internal processes. With this shift in Voigt’s work, finding forms that correlate to imagination, memory, experience and emotion moved to the forefront of her practice. ''Piece for Words and Views'' explores how, when reading, words have the capacity to produce images in the reader’s imagination. The series transforms specific words from '' A Lover's Discourse'' by

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...

into both abstract and representational imagery. Each mental image receives a specific color and form, which is rendered via contoured drawing on colored vellum. The final drawing is made by collaging the multiple images, forming an ambiguous relation among them. A similar process is at work in Voigt’s 48-part series ''Love as Passion: On the Codification of Intimacy'', which takes responds to

Niklas Luhmann Niklas Luhmann (; ; December 8, 1927 – November 6, 1998) was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and a prominent thinker in systems theory. Biography Luhmann was born in Lüneburg, Free State of Prussia, where his father's fa ...

's 1982 book by the same name. Each drawing in ''Codification of Intimacy'' takes a chapter, passage, or key word that Voigt distilled from Luhmann’s book as its source. Voigt begins each drawing by marking the passages in the text that triggered intuitive associations.

Immersion (2018/2019)

''Immersion'' takes as its starting point the process of perception itself. It deals less with exactly ''what'' we perceive than ''how'' we perceive. The series seeks to develop appropriate forms to understand the inner constitution of archetypal images, that which is ''behind'' what we see, and how such images might be experienced or shared collectively. A central element in these works is the

torus In geometry, a torus (plural tori, colloquially donut or doughnut) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis that is coplanar with the circle. If the axis of revolution does not tou ...

, a shape that Voigt conceives of as a model for perception, in combination with arrows, axes, and lines. Voigt first began working with these forms in her ''Lacan Studies'' from 2016. She begins each work in the ''Immersion'' series by immersing paper in pigment. Each color is selected to denote a particular atmosphere or emotional state. A large torus figure forms the central element of the composition and in each variation its dimensions morph and rotate. Voigt describes ''Immersion'' as a “time-based series,” with each piece created one after the other and representing a different moment in time. “When you look at the series as a whole you can see the exact connection between those moments,” Voigt explains, “In real life you focus on each moment at a time, and you can’t stop and zoom out in order to see the bigger picture.” Another variable element of the compositions are Voigt’s use of gold and precious metals. She incorporates metal inlays by cutting out sections of the drawings and gilding them with gold, aluminum, and copper leaf and reintegrating the shapes into their original place in the composition.

Museum collections

Jorinde Voigt’s work is included the international museums and public collections, including

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, Paris;

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York;

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

;

Kupferstichkabinett Berlin The Kupferstichkabinett, or Museum of Prints and Drawings, is a prints museum in Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Berlin State Museums, and is located in the Kulturforum on Potsdamer Platz. It is the largest museum of graphic art in Germany, ...

; Instanbul Modern; the Federal Art Collection Bonn, the

Hamburger Kunsthalle The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. The museum consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaa ...

, Hamburg; Kunsthaus Zürich;

Kunstmuseum Stuttgart The Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is a contemporary and modern art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, built and opened in 2005. Description The cubic museum building with 5000 m2 of display space was designed by Berlin architects Hascher and Jehle. During ...

; Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo; and the Grafische Sammlung, Munich.

Exhibitions

* 2019 Wall Drawings Series: Jorinde Voigt, Menil Drawing Institute, Houston * 2019 Jorinde Voigt – Universal Turn, Horst-Janssen-Museum, Oldenburg *2018 Jorinde Voigt ''–'' Divine Territory, St. Matthäus Church, Berlin * 2017 Jorinde Voigt – A New Kind of Joy,

Kunsthalle Nürnberg The Kunsthalle Nürnberg is an art centre founded in 1967, near the city centre. It organizes exhibitions by contemporary international artists in its galleries in Nuremberg. The Kunsthalle commissions new work by a majority of the artists it wo ...

* 2014 Jorinde Voigt – Super Passion, MACRO

Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome The Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, it, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma, italic=no, usually known as MACRO, is a municipal contemporary art museum in Rome, Italy. The museum is housed in two separate places: a former brewery in Via Nizza, ...

, Rome * 2013 Jorinde Voigt – Systematic Notations,

Nevada Museum of Art The Nevada Museum of Art, is an art museum in Reno, Nevada. Located at 160 West Liberty Street in Reno, it is the only American Alliance of Museums (AAM) accredited art museum in the state of Nevada. The museum has chosen a thematic approach, placi ...

NMA * 2011 Jorinde Voigt,

Von der Heydt Museum The Von der Heydt Museum is a museum in Wuppertal, Germany. The Von der Heydt Museum includes works by artists from the 17th century to the present time. History The museum is housed in the former city hall of Elberfeld, which in 1902 became a ...

, Wuppertal * 2010 Jorinde Voigt – Staat / Random I-XI,

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

* 2009 Jorinde Voigt – Symphonic Area, HDKV Heidelberger Kunstverein * 2008 Jorinde Voigt - Dualnab Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden