18/05/2026
“Schrank A” and “Schrank B” (both 2026) hang directly opposite from one another. The Schrank paintings follow earlier works, “Schranks #1- #3”, exhibited previously in Berlin. “Schrank #1” is nearly a 1:1 replica of “Schrank” (1963), a beige-colored painting by Sigmar Polke. The only painterly elements in his work are a black line in the middle and two small keyholes.
At the Kunstverein Braunschweig, the Schrank works have a pink background. Nogle approximates Baker Miller pink, also known as “Drunk Tank-pink,” a color used in police stations, prisons, and psychiatric institutions because it has been proven to reduce violent or aggressive behavior. The placement of the paintings physically extends Nogle’s interest in one of Kafka’s parables, in which a man has two antagonists, one who presses him from behind and another who blocks the road ahead.
Writing about the parable, Hannah Arendt describes the man standing in a gap between two unlimited forces, an infinite past and an infinite future, “but though they have no known beginning, they have a terminal ending, the point at which they clash.” Arendt offers the image of a parallelogram of forces. Man is unable to interrupt these forces but can cause them to deflect slightly and meet at an angle, making the gap where he finds himself “no simple interval.”
Schrank A, Schrank B, 2026
Acrylic on canvas
Each 50,2 × 57,5 × 1,9 cm
Credit: D’Ette Nogle, “Let it R.I.P.”, installation view at Kunstverein Braunschweig, 2026. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Frank Sperling.
