As one of the few artists from West Germany making up the New Leipzig school predominated by artists from the East, Tim Eitel has produced works that are firmly based in the East-German tradition of figurative paintings, yet with an emphasis on cerebral aspects often found in abstract works. From September 2 through October 23, 2011, Hakgojae Gallery in Seoul will for the first time in Asia hold an exhibition exclusively dedicated to his works. The title of the exhibition, The Placeholders, refers to the traces in given places or contexts left absent by their protagonists.
Sae-mi Kim

Tim Eitel depicts the varieties of emotions modern human beings experience in an understated, serene manner, often using themes and objects found in our daily lives. The figures of people who show to viewers only their backsides, the stern looks on their faces, their rather passive gestures, spaces of an uncertain nature surrounding them, the flat color schemes, and the smooth surfaces of the canvasses found in his works all indicate that Eitel is an artist who has an unaffected, coolheaded take on the reality.
Eitel is fundamentally a painter, who provoke subtle differences in the reactions of his viewers, while at the same time evoking generally similar sensations in them. Now we are given a chance to contemplate upon Eitel's works through the voice of the artist himself, who is fully capable of manipulating the tranquil, yet influential nature of the medium of art known as painting.
art Your works evoke in viewers certain feelings of loneliness, solitude, isolation, emptiness and uncertainty, both directly and indirectly. I think these are common states of emotion we modern humans often find ourselves in, and that is why I think so many people can relate to your works. Your works display both particularity and generality.
TE Those feelings are perhaps one part of my works. Certain existential, emotional states or contents or physicality can be universal. For me, it is actually being alone than being lonely that in a sense has a positive side. We need to be alone from time to time to get back a sense of ourselves. That need is certainly different from states of depression or loneliness and is something rather positive. It's more like calmness than sadness. You should probably see something different.
art The way you go about expressing the personalities or characters of the human figures in your works is very restrained. So viewers tend to identify with those human figures in the end, thinking those figures are in the end viewers' own self-portraits.  
TE What is interesting to me is that when the people see my paintings, they think they recognize people they know in them. That is because these figures are individual, but at the same time also universal. Viewers see some types of these figures and think that they can be friends with them. I am not interested in telling a story through paintings. I only hope that my paintings would show some possibilities of a story. So, as a viewer, you can make up your own story. I think my paintings are much more of images that act as cues for visual thinking.   
art The background spaces in your paintings are both spaces and abstract representations. How do you select spaces or scenes for the backgrounds of your paintings?
TE Backgrounds are meant to function as stage-sets. Their abstractness is intended to make the overall scenery focused. On their own, they are not in any part necessary elements of the paintings. So I sometimes invent these backgrounds from photographs. All the imageries come from the photographs I take on my own. I use these photographs like sketches, copying them more or less onto my paintings. I often construct a single painting by combining and arranging elements, details, figures, and scenes found from multiple photographs. By taking specific objects and human figures from their original contexts, I re-contextualize them in my paintings.
art Your geometric backgrounds remind us of Mondrian. Your works manage to combine elements of both figurative and abstract paintings.  
TE Yes, Mondrian is something of an obsession I have had for a long time. I am quite fascinated by the fact that he tried to paint the flat. There are no spaces in his paintings, and in the end, viewers come away having seen no spaces. I tried to emulate his structure in creating spaces in my paintings. At one point, I realized that abstract painters's works are not just about the form, but hide some transcendental system behind them. I guess Mondrian, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko do not merely play with the form, but seek to create something through the form. In a way, their works are not abstract because they convey something other than the form-namely, ideas. On the other hand, I have always been interested in representation, not only in matters of painting but more generally in matters of what we see.
art Your works are either the size of two letter-sized sheets of paper combined, or the size of a gigantic canvass, often 2 meters or longer in width and height. Why insist on either of these two sizes?
TE Smaller paintings seek to attract viewers to come closer to the paintings by conveying intimacy, physicality, and conversations in small gestures. To view these small objects better the viewer has to step closer. The shortened distance between the painting and the viewer, in turn, serves to induce a conversation between the two. The bigger paintings, on the other hand, extend and stretch indefinitely into the surrounding spaces so that the viewer can see them as if they were windows. This has the effect of placing both the viewer and the human figure or object expressed in the painting in the same situation, and adds to the sense of solidarity the viewer feels with the painting. I like to change back and forth between the two sizes. If you stay long enough in one thing, you can begin to see something different.
art I heard that, while you were staying in Los Angels in 2005 you were quite impressed by the sight of the homeless.
TE Opposites co-exist in that dual-natured city where Beverly Hills and the Hollywood are located. The rich live in complete separation from the poor. When I saw the homeless people, I was both shocked and saddened. I also realized that there are significant differences between real streets on the one hand and paintings and photographs on the other. So while I intended to make an explicit point or two about the prevalent social problems in the urban areas, I ended up depicing something much more fundamental and existential.
art Your paintings are not explicit on social message, but they definitely involve a consciousness of major social issues. How do you seek to communicate these issues?
TE As an artist I always try to reflect the contemporary world I live in. I'm dependent on what I see. But the reality around me speaks to me like a metaphor than a document. I think my paintings are not judgmental. I do make a proposition, but I try to show something in a way to allow viewers to make up their own minds.