Ohne Titel (N 5). 1961.
Oil on canvas.
Dornacher/Geiger 282. Signed, dated and inscribed "N 5" on the stretcher. 86 : 80,7 cm (33,8 : 31,7 in). In 1926 Rupprecht Geiger attended Eduard Pfeiffer's architectural class at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich. He graduated as an architect in 1935 and spent half a year in Rome together with his father. Geiger then worked in a Munich architect's bureau until 1940 when he was sent to the Russian Front. Typical of this period are his dark-coloured landscapes in watercolour. Geiger returned to Munich after the end of the war. His first abstract work was exhibited in 1948 at the "Salon des Réalités Nouvelles" in Paris. One year later Geiger joined up with Baumeister, Matschinsky-Denninghoff and Winter and founded the group "ZEN 49". Geiger discovered his true style during the 1950s. He integrated the futurist style of the sixties, which was influenced by space research, into his abstract and colourful compositions. He repeatedly showed works at the documenta in Kassel between 1959 and 1977.

The palette of Geiger’s Colour Field paintings, which developed successively into monochrome surfaces, was not so aggressive in the 1960s as it would be later. The present work is an interesting example of the development the artist’s work went through until colour assumed absolute primacy. “The diversity of abstract forms, with their often bizarre outlines, distracts attention from the colour whereas with archetypal forms such as the rectangle and circle, colour can stand out unaltered.” (Jürgen Morschel, in: Künstler. Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, Munich 1988/92, p. 10).

He gave up working as an architect in 1962 in order to concentrate on his painting. In 1965 Geiger was appointed professor at the Akademie in Düsseldorf, a post that he held until 1976. Geiger has been a member of the Akademie der Schönen Künste in Munich since 1982. At present Geiger lives and works in Munich. Rupprecht Geiger's abstract colour compositions make him one of the most important artists of "Farbfeldmalerei" (colour field painting) in Germany. [MH]

PROVENIENZ: Galerie Marbach, Paris (with two labels on the stretcher).
Galerie Elke Dröscher, Hamburg (with the label on the stretcher).
AUSSTELLUNG: Rupprecht Geiger, Galerie Otto Stangl, Munich 1961.

In good condition, colours still fresh. Tiny rubbings on the elevated spots of the canvas.