Jorinde Voigt

Jorinde Voigt (born 1977) is a German visual artist based in Berlin whose large-scale ink drawings are inspired by musical scores, philosophical concepts, and phenomenological methods.^[1] She is also a professor of conceptual drawing and painting at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg.

Voigt's work has been compared to the work of Minimalist and Conceptual artists,^[2] such as the event scores and visual artworks of 20th-century avant-garde composers John Cage and Iannis Xenakis;^[3] the algorithmic patterns of Hanne Darboven;^[4] and the procedural parameters of Sol LeWitt.^[5]

In 2002, Voigt began to make drawings which have been described as projection surfaces, visualized thought models, scientific experimental designs, notations, scores, and diagrams.^[6][7] In 2003 she developed a symbolic system in the series Notations Florida and Indonesia. These drawings record the artist's impressions when traveling from Orlando to Miami.^[8] Further work cycles, developed from the study of perception, were established in this early series.^[9] Although formally and conceptually diverse, these cycles share an interest in representing underlying structures and capturing the simultaneity of experience through markings on paper.^[2]

This series is based on historic Chinese erotic paintings and prints. Voigt studied these images and rebuilt them with paper cut-outs, short bits of text, and simple diagram-like layouts.^[10] For each work, she analyzed the same image many times, noting different details.^[11] Some works include more than 100 individual observations. As a result, the finished pieces resemble charts or tables rather than traditional pictures.^[12] Poet and critic John Yau wrote that "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."^[12]

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 attempted to find images that corresponded to internal processes. The series transforms specific words from A Lover's Discourse by Roland Barthes 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 was made by collaging the multiple images, forming an ambiguous relation among them.^[13]

In Voigt's 48-part series Love as Passion: On the Codification of Intimacy, a passage from Niklas Luhmann's 1982 book by the same name is distilled into a drawing.^[14]

Immersion seeks to develop appropriate forms to understand the inner constitution of archetypal images and how such images might be experienced or shared collectively. A central element in these works is the torus, in combination with arrows, axes, and lines.^[15] Voigt commences each work in the Immersion series by immersing paper in pigment. Each color is selected to denote a particular atmosphere or emotional state.^[7] 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 to see the bigger picture."^[16][17]

Jorinde Voigt's work is showcased in various collections internationally, including: the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Kupferstichkabinett Berlin; İstanbul Modern; Federal Art Collection (Bundeskunsthalle), Bonn; the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Kunsthaus Zürich; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; Norwegian Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo; and Grafische Sammlung, Munich.^[18]

• 2025 Jorinde Voigt, Marc Selwyn Fine Arts, LA^[19]
• 2025 Music Inspiration: Beethoven's Compositions in Modern Art, David Nolan Gallery, New York^[20]
• 2023 Jorinde Voigt: The Match, David Nolan Gallery, New York^[21]
• 2021 Jorinde Voigt: Trust and Rain, David Nolan Gallery, New York^[22]
• 2020 The State of Play: Jorinde Voigt, David Nolan Gallery, New York^[23]
• 2019 Wall Drawings Series: Jorinde Voigt, Menil Drawing Institute, Houston^[24]
• 2019 Jorinde Voigt – Universal Turn, Horst-Janssen-Museum, Oldenburg^[25]
• 2018 Jorinde Voigt: Integral, David Nolan Gallery, New York^[26]
• 2018 Jorinde Voigt – Divine Territory, St. Matthäus Church, Berlin^[25]
• 2017 Jorinde Voigt – A New Kind of Joy, Kunsthalle Nürnberg^[24]
• 2016 Jorinde Voigt: Considerations in the Now, David Nolan Gallery, New York^[27]
• 2014 Jorinde Voigt ‒ Codification of Intimacy: Works on Niklas Luhmann, David Nolan Gallery, New York^[28]
• 2014 Jorinde Voigt – Superpassion, MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Rome^[25]
• 2013 Jorinde Voigt – Systematic Notations, Nevada Museum of Art NMA^[25]
• 2011 Jorinde Voigt – Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal^[24]
• 2010 Jorinde Voigt – STAAT / Random I-XI, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag^[25]
• 2009 Jorinde Voigt – Symphonic Area, HDKV Heidelberger Kunstverein^[24]
• 2008 Jorinde Voigt – DUAL / NKV Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden^[25]