{"object":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"50240"},"creditline":{"label":"Credit Line","value":"Galerie von Braunbehrens Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza"},"labelText":{"label":"Description","value":"Oil painting on canvas by German artist Jens Lorenzen titled \"Mauer IV, Element plus 33, SUPERMAN\", dated 2015.\r\n\r\nThis oil painting is part of a larger series called \"Mauer IV\" and mimics the look of a collage piece. \"Mauer\" means \"wall\" in German, and it relates directly to the Berlin Wall of the artist's childhood in Germany during the Cold War. The representational paintings of this series depict antique posters and handbills plastered haphazardly together on a continuous imaginary wall, are they are painted with the illusion of collage, suggesting time-worn layers peeling away to reveal the older layers underneath. Lorenzen describes his process as \"looking for the story behind the story.\"\r\n\r\nWhen hanging together, each painting flows thematically into the previous and following paintings, allowing the series to be read as one long mural, subtly changing its motifs and meanings as each work is viewed. The artist's iconic text and imagery merge politics with Pop Art, and modern advertising with ancient Italian frescoes, contrasting the past and the future, the hidden and the exposed.\r\n\r\nKennedy appears as a recurring image in many of the Mauer paintings. Each image in the series is called an element, and he numbers each painting separately. He started at zero, with the paintings to the right assigned positive numbers and the paintings to the left assigned negative numbers. The Kennedy images started at plus 10 or 12, but he is now at plus 40. At The Sixth Floor Museum, we have numbers 24, 25, 33 and 34 in the Mauer series. In this particular painting, \"Element plus 34, SUPERMAN\" the Texas School Book Depository sign can be seen along the bottom edge and continues from number 33, positioning the viewer visually at the site of the Kennedy assassination, while the images of Kennedy remind viewers of lives cut short and legacies of hope for the future. \r\n\r\nThe artist researched materials in The Sixth Floor Museum\u2019s permanent collection as inspiration for some of the images he used in these paintings."},"invno":{"label":"Object number","value":"2017.047.0002"},"description":{"label":"Description","value":"Painting by German artist Jens Lorenzen titled Mauer IV, Element plus 34, SUPERMAN, 2015, oil on canvas\r\n\r\n[See also Description information for 2017.047.0001.]\r\n\r\nPresidential papers are underneath the HITWEEK that are from Norman Mailer. Mailer did an essay titled \"Superman Goes to Supermart.\" SUPERMAN imagery comes from that word association. DC COmic New Frontier has a word association with Washington DC, which also made the artist associate his thoughts with the Warren COmmission. Everything connects, like a stream of consciousness. On the other side of SUPERMAN, the word association imagery continues to go on and on. Lorenzen no longer has to choose between the icons in the Mauer series like he originaly had to because an something he puts in one element automatically leads him to associate other imagery with the next element. He always had to choose what he had to put on one canvas. With this method he erased all those limitations. He's now free to put whatever imagery and iconography he wants, but that also puts a lot of pressure on him \"becuase it never ends; you're always running behind\" (16:39). He always has enough room to add all the associations he has but that process is much faster than the paining process. Kennedy appears in all of his paitnings than any other figure because he represent danger and the lack of control over our lives, which is a driving theme for Lorenzen but also for art itself. \"You can't control danger and you can't control happiness. THe happiest happiness is when it comes by surprise.\" (17:18). Lorenzen takes analog photographs with a 1960s Nikon F(?) then he projects those slides onto the canvas and paints off the projected image. This camera was not chosen for a specific reason; it was the first camera he bought in the 1990s and he's used that model ever since - he has 4 different bodies of Nikon Fs now. He plays with the color so that the final Element looks like a torn-down billboard \"because every image stands behind [sic] you and the truth\" (18:08). The layering appearnace of his compositions allude to the discovery of the truth. He mistrusts electronic art because you can't take it apart without getting electric shock; taking a painting apart has no physical harm effects. Lorenzen is honored to have his paintings at TSFM. \"THe JFK story was part of [his] Wall, and now [his] Wall is part of this Museum, part of the story\" (19:56). Lorenzen felt that when watching Eknnedy's inaguration speech he was not promising paradise, he was promising hardship but you feel it will be alright. Lorenzen describes Kennedy as not being single-minded, and today leaders are often seen as weak if they are open-minded. Leaders today appear to derive their power from single-mindedness because it looks like they are powerful, but Kennedy was open-minded which is why he seemed to be weak but he wasn't. \"Victory lies in the open-mindedness\" (22:16). This is largly where his importance lies. The artist loves playing these games of surprise with himself through all the associations in his head with various words and imagery. The NBA logo in the corner comes from first thinking about the Hertz REnt-A-Car sign on teh top of the TSBD building which advertised Cheverolet, then he saw a Hertz sign that advertised Ford, which made him think about Ford, then Ford Mustang, then Ford Maverick, then Mavericks basketball team in Dallas, the NBA. Lorenzen did audio recordings that are on the homepage of his website which explain the stream of consciousness associations in his paitnings. Superman comic book in TSFM Coll. is what we immediately associated with the Superman comic in this painting but that has nothing to do with how Lorenzen stream of consciousness associated Superman with Kennedy. Artist's intent was completely different from waht we assumed his intent was."},"medium":{"label":"Medium","value":"Oil on canvas"},"onview":{"label":"On View","value":"0"},"media":{"label":"Media","value":[{"mediaURL":"https://emuseum.jfk.org/internal/media/dispatcher/60321/full","displayOrder":"0","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"60321"}]},"title":{"label":"Title","value":"\"Mauer IV, Element plus 34, SUPERMAN\" oil on canvas painting by Jens Lorenzen"},"classification":{"label":"Classifications","value":"Art"},"primaryMedia":{"label":"PrimaryMedia","value":"/internal/media/dispatcher/60321/full"},"depth":{"label":"Depth","value":["0E-10"]},"thesconcepts":{"label":"Terms","value":["Pop Culture","Artwork","Berlin Wall","Sign","Kennedy, John F.","Texas School Book Depository","Stuttgart"]},"culture":{"label":"Object","value":"Artwork"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"2015"},"width":{"label":"Width","value":["71.1201422403"]},"textEntriesTextentries":{"label":"Curatorial Commentary","value":["Exhibit Label: Born in Schleswig, West Germany, Lorenzen first studied as a journeyman carpenter before transferring to the University of Fine Arts, Braunschweig. When he was 16, Lorenzen spent a year as an exchange student in Cleveland, Ohio. It was a transformative experience, leading to a lifelong interest in Pop Art and American icons such as President Kennedy. As an artist, Lorenzen is interested in the 1960s because that was a time of looking forward and in Kennedy as a figure in American pop culture. He has painted a series called Mauer (The Wall) which includes more than 40 individual paintings, that incorporate his interests in history and iconography. Over the past decades he has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout Germany, the US, Mexico and Hong Kong. (Special exhibit, \"Art Reframes History,\" on view on the Museum's seventh floor from September 9, 2020 through May 9, 2021)","Inspiration for \"Mauer IV, Element plus 33, HITWEEK\" and \"SUPERMAN\" came in part from a visit the artist made to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in 2014. As he explained in his 2017 oral history, \"When my wife and I visited the Museum in 2014, I took pictures of the cardboard boxes behind which Oswald hid. And on them, it says 'Books: Building for Today.' And then, it was a close step to the Texas School Book Depository sign. I'm not investigating anything. I'm not looking for the truth.... It's not a question of right or wrong on my paintings. I'm just playing with associations. And when I have a sign saying 'book,' I can add book to it. It's like a puzzle where things fit together.\" -- Stephen Fagin, Curator","A virtual conversation with Jens Lorenzen, recorded in September 2020, is part of the Museum's \"Interrogating Art\" virtual series to support the special exhibit \"Art Reframes History.\" The full program may be viewed on the Museum's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVmNou0qys. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator","Exhibit Label: Lorenzen\u2019s oil paintings use the visual language of collage to put Kennedy and the assassination in an historical context that merges politics with Pop Art, and modern advertising with ancient Italian frescoes. The artist contrasts the past and the future, the hidden and the exposed. These two paintings fit within a larger series Lorenzen has created in response to the Berlin Wall and his own childhood growing up in Cold War West Germany. The former Texas School Book Depository sign that spans both paintings places the viewer here, at the site of the Kennedy assassination, while the images of Kennedy and John Lennon remind viewers of lives cut short and legacies of hope for the future. \r\n \r\nLorenzen describes his layered approach as \u201clooking for the story behind the story.\u201d He researched materials in The Sixth Floor Museum\u2019s permanent collection as inspiration for some of the images he used in these paintings. (Special exhibit, \"Art Reframes History,\" on view on the Museum's seventh floor from September 9, 2020 through May 9, 2021)","This object was part of the Fragments special installation on the Museum's 7th floor, on view from November 3, 2021 through July 3, 2022."]},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"66036"},"dimensions":{"label":"Dimensions","value":"40 × 28 in. (101.6 × 71.1 cm)"},"height":{"label":"Height","value":["101.6002032004"]}}]}