Karin Sander Gebrauchsbild 170b, Le Plateau, Paris / Patina Painting 170b, Le Plateau, Paris, 2014

Patina Paintings (Gebrauchsbilder) are ready-made canvases in standard formats that Karin Sander leaves at a selected location for a limited, defined period of time. Usually the artist choses environments that unavoidably leave their mark on the canvas: for example, gardens, balconies, cellars, terraces, or waterfronts. Over a period determined by the artist specifically for each piece, traces of the environment, like dust, stains, mold, marks of rain, snow or earth, start to be visible on the canvas. The transformed painting then becomes a unique testimony of the time spent at the certain location and thus in way a portrait of that place.