Walk through a dark and empty corridor. Behind me come the distorted sounds of Ivan Zulueta's exposition. In a way, I find it weird to pass anything here, to go through emptiness. At the end of the corridor, I see something shining, and as I approach, thanks to the joining of the different elements, I see a composition taking shape. I can guess the shape of a woman in this composition with metal sheets. Even though I don't know yet, then I will realize that in order to decipher Koether's paintings, I will always need to look closely, closely, inwards, into that blackness. Shades always black, sometimes fat, sometimes bright and/or dense because the heart and essence of the artwork, quotes, references and symbols that are heartbeats. As in life, it's about getting close here.

We could say that Jutta Koether (Cologne, Germany, 1958) is a painter, but it is fairer to say that she approaches painting to many other disciplines, be it texture, music or performance. Born in Germany, since the early 1990s he has lived in New York (USA) and his artistic and musical scene influences his work. Punka, the DIY philosophy and the lo-fi finish echo in their works; at the same time, in their magicians, works, painters and artistic movements that have marked a milestone in the history of art are reflected in a simple and meditated way. It questions the canonical history of art, linear and mainly male narrative that we have learned in books and in school, through appropriation, copying and distortion, to question the pictorial discipline “traditionally masculine” and to build new genealogy of the same painting. In Artium you can see a selection of the works done by the artist from 1987 to the present, a proposal that covers the white walls of the museum in a shaded way.

I've been delighted to meet the work of this artist who until then knew me. And I also loved the museum trip. In fact, Artium has begun to schedule monographic exhibitions dedicated to mid-caritary artists that have never been made in our country a few years ago, addressing an interesting genealogy through a curatorial work of tracing: Moyra Davey (1958), Katinka Bock (1976), Mariana Castillo Deball (1975) and this time Jutta Koether (1958). Through this type of project, we can get to know at home in a broad way the work of artists who actively participate in the international art scene, offering an ample opportunity to investigate their artistic trajectory.

The architecture of the room gives rhythm to the exhibition and facilitates a careful grouping of works. The truth is that I've been struck by spatial design: everything is hung on the perimeter wall, the big central space is empty, and maybe that's what I'm visiting; the time spent on each piece is lengthened, the rhythm is slowed down, and the visitor moves away and makes a movement of rapprochement to see what is hidden in the guts of those works of different size and finish. The repetition of the choreography of approach and distance has given rise to something performative that can be observed in these works. Koether's own way of painting also has a sign of perseverance, in which movement, immediacy and precariousness of material selection can be seen in many works of art. The ceiling fence of the living room gradually introduces you into the exhibition, and although they partially cover the main work of the exhibition, it is nice as we approach – again we approach – opening before us the beautiful Touch and Χ 5 (after Rubens copying Tizian) [Toca and Eutsi 5 (after Rubens copied Tiziano)]. The only piece of art found on a long wall is a fabric almost five meters wide, and Koether's operation with this play bears witness to the act of incorporating the feminist perspective into his way of working.

In this case, the artist has copied the Fiesta degli amorini or Omaggio to Venere (offer Venusi, 1518-1520) by Tiziano, putting the fabric on the ground and quickly running. He copies the painting of Titian, as Rubens did. It performs these types of operations frequently, distorting, appropriating, copying or modeling the story told in it. One example of the latter is Leibhaftige Maleras (Buried Painting, 2007), in which he draws an updated version of this painting that avoids Botticelli’s violent and machist scene. Koether takes the action of copying without a doubt or irony, as if it were a specific act in painting. As he himself says, “the empire of my flora, following Poussin and Twombly, or my forest landscapes, following Henri Rosseau, are worlds of ‘eternal dismantling’. It is always conducted by meta-delegation and means. Like the body itself. And such a body learns from other bodies. An image learns from other images.”

In the 1980s, in order to create a genealogy characteristic of their history, many women artists escaped from the traditional disciplines of art – painting, sculpture – from the mere commissioning of a type of art yet to be written, without male burdens or inheritances from the past. It includes, for example, perfumes, actions and happenings, and were VALIE EXPORT or Carolee Scheemann, feminist artists who sought new scenes to express their creations and desires. But Koether wants to influence painting itself, wants to transform itself into what is "more masculine" among artistic disciplines. Therefore, we can identify signs of Botticelli, Rubens, Gauguin or Twombli in the same terms as painting. According to Koether no image remains inside, but there are surviving images in which the artist focuses his attention and works continuously pulling a thread that is not interrupted.

In Vitoria the paintings of Koether are displayed, but their musical facet also stands out. It includes performative performances with Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon, where noise, whispering of voices, distortion of a guitar and projections of Koether's paintings coincide. To palpate the tone of these shows it is worth jumping over the internet. Koether’s texts can also be found in various international artistic journals, commenting on works by contemporary artists and opening new loopholes in the tradition of painting.