Anselm Glück

"anselm glück occasionally calls himself and kindred spirits agents. In other words, he sees himself as someone who is on the move on behalf of a foreign power for a usually complicated matter. Agents carry out covert actions, deceive, bluff, play with fire, have a thousand faces and a hundred nationalities. They have to be "all-rounders" and, if captured, credible "know-nothings". Their basic training includes learning ciphers as well as fighting techniques of a more effective nature.anselm glück, a medium-sized, slender man with a handsome face reminiscent of the borderline magician Artaud, is the ideal cast for such a character, who is only ever perceived as the tip of an iceberg. Nothing about him betrays his actual adventurous existence, apart from his gaze, which always keeps his counterpart and his surroundings under control. glück is an eye-opener in many senses of the word and I have to admit that I have been fascinated by him and his art since we first met. Mr. anselm is rarely well. Like most capable agents, he has no pact with happiness. And yet, in the rare bright hours, he is willing to be a darned good fellow. Then he generously dispenses wit and absurdity to his listeners, nobly leaves them in the dark about the extent of the merciless precision of his character analyses in relation to himself and others, proves to be probably the only person based in Vienna who has read every issue of the New Yorker in the past 10 years, indulges in cashmere jackets and the proximity of shimmering ladies. At such moments, he rises, stretches, expands into a wonderful laughter, only to collapse again a little later and be unable (or allowed) to endure anything more than days of riding the subway from aimlessness to aimlessness.anselm glück is undoubtedly a special case and the apparent friendliness of his paintings should not be taken in. They are double and triple-barrelled works of a high order, superimpositions of dramas and tragicomedies. They are no less coded messages and plan drawings of a master agent, whose mission I have known for some time thanks to the unforgivable indiscretion of an undercover agent, but in this text I do not want to be guilty of the same sin of revealing it." (André Heller on anselm glück, Paris on 25.02.2002)