(born in Berlin in 1969)
puls führt, 2014, titled, signed, dated Jonas Burgert 14 on the reverse, oil on canvas, 240 x 280 cm, on stretcher

The work is registered in the catalogue raisonné from Jonas Burgert under the number: WerkJ.B./P/014/04 .

Provenance:
Blain Southern, formerly Berlin
Private Collection, Germany - acquired from the above

Exhibited / Literature:
Blain Southern, Jonas Burgert: Stück Hirn Blind, London, 14 October – 22 November 2014
MAMbo Museo D’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Jonas Burgert: Lotsucht / Scandagliodipendenza, Bologna, 26 January – 17 April 2017, with cat.: Lotsucht - Scandagliodipendenza , (ed.) Laura Carlini Fanfogna, Corraini Edizioni January 2017, (double page colour ill.)

Jonas Burgert is one of the recent rising stars of the German contemporary art scene. A few years ago, he was living in a garage that also served as his studio. Nowadays, his grand studio in Berlin-Weißensee is the starting point for the stories he tells through his canvasses. Burgert’s figurative paintings of enormous scale often show crowded and very detailed scenes. The artist appears to create his own surrealistic world in every painting. Against a background of earthy tones – soil being a source of life – the artist’s own mystical character creations inhabit the paintings alongside animals and tell their unique stories.
Human psychological motivations and why they do certain things or exhibit certain behaviours is the inspiration behind every artwork. Burgert examines our instinctive need to give life sense, direction, and purpose.
On the huge canvas of puls führt, we can see a racehorse lying down with one of the artist’s whimsical entities entangled with what might be its possessions on the horse’s back. Staring directly at the viewer, the character holds a tube to the horse’s artery and listens to its pulse. The alignment of the horse’s ears suggests that the animal itself is also listening to its pulse. The artwork reads as a critique of today’s overachieving society. Everyone is in a hurry, trying to accomplish more in less time. But what happens when we lie down and simply listen to our heart beating?
This self-induced stress echoes loudly in our bodies through a pounding heart which slowly but steady relaxes and releases the pent-up tension. The underlying question of this artwork could be: If our bodies speak so clearly to us why do we still feel the need to put ourselves under so much pressure?