In Germany, outside the Becher school Joachim Schulz is one of the few important artists to have developed a very personal style discernible in all his series. Sensitizing our awareness of our own perception and imagination is central to his work.

In the series lichtspiele, we are confronted with cinema curtains in various shades and forms of hanging textiles, and are invited to decipher their shape through the language of light and shadow. The high quality of the photographs transforms a simple object into an abstraction of color and form, an image of pure beauty and a substitute for what it is meant to hide, i.e., the cinema screen with its universe of human destiny. What seems to be paradoxical, namely the impossible task of making the unseen seen, is the basis on which his work flourishes.

The same strategy, the same simplicity strikes us in each of his series aura, ...du aus leere über-volle fülle…, halflife and patina. However, in each case it is the tension between technical perfec-tion, a strength of color and form almost as can be seen in paintings and above all the game he plays with our imagination that makes Joachim Schulz’s works deep and lasting experiences. Ac-cordingly, the artist has said of his series lichtspiele: My curtains have a playing time of two hours.