50s

One of Quintes' early works is the painting “ Black plays ” from 1956 by the then 33-year-old artist, who had already completed his painting apprenticeship in Leipzig, his war service with imprisonment in France and his training at the Bernstein Abbey art school. The work, which can be described as avant-garde, was shown on the recommendation of Kurt Martin (1899–1975), then director of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, in the exhibition "biennale 57 jeune peinture jeune sculpture" in the Marsan pavilion of the Louvre in Paris. It was then on view in the Städelmuseum in Frankfurt and finally in Canada, the latter station being mentioned in the catalog but not being documented. Despite the euphemistic title, the medium-sized picture looks gloomy, threatening. The slim portrait format creates a "vertical tension" that seems to convey an anthropological seriousness. The exploding black splashes are also reminiscent of war events that the artist still remembered in 1956. The blood-red, partially covered elements in the upper area also match this. Blue and yellow spots are almost swallowed. But the white light - is it hope? - shines radiantly from the center and the gaps in the networks and gives the picture depth without the use of perspective means. With Quinte, the layer-by-layer application of paint remains comprehensible and creates a surreal perspective that allows the viewer to immerse himself in a world without objects that is born entirely from the imagination. In 1940, Jean-Paul Sartre described this quality as essential in his theoretical considerations on the work of art.34 Perception leads to “imagination” in the viewer, if the signs for it are set in the work. The effect is likely to be based on the psychological and anthropological phenomenon of stratification with changing transparency and non-transparency of memory and vigility. In communication with nature and fellow human beings, there are also such changing “lighting conditions” with different moods and sensitivities. The absolute clarity should be one of the rarities of the experience. This is probably why the pictures of this era are so effective. It is not for nothing that we speak of the depth of a feeling or a thought.