Organic Abstraction: Achtelik, Pollock’s reconqueror

Abstract

This article analyzes the work of contemporary German visual artist Nadine Achtelik, proposing that both Jackson Pollock and Achtelik can be situated within Organic Abstraction. Within this movement  German aesthetic thought is seen as a engaging in a kind of reconquest of the American artist’s visual language. The study applies Flyvbjerg’s (2004) paradigmatic case method, examining three acrylic works by the German artist alongside three by Pollock, treated as counterfacts. The analysis reveals that Achtelik’s paintings evoke representations of intestinal labyrinths, neural networks, cosmic structures, and stardust—motifs that constitute her core aesthetic concerns. As for the notion that Achtelik undertakes a reconquest of Pollock, this can be explained through the recovery of the philosophical premise that, beyond the new styles and performances postulated by postmodern aesthetics, this art ultimately becomes—within the context of Organic Abstraction—a reconquest of matter itself. In this sense, the reconquest is understood not as the reappropriation of Pollock’s ideas, but as a recovery of his fluidity and technique.