Bernard Schultze

1915, Schneidemühl2005, Cologne

Bernard Schultze, born in Schneidemühl in 1915, is one of the best-known representatives of German abstraction and was, among others, a co-founder of the artist group Quadriga, which was to form the core of the later German Informel. Since the early 1950s, flourishing and decay have been poles around which Schultze's work revolves. In it, he combines influences of the surrealist conception of the image with an impulsive brushstroke typical of Informel, using an additive painting process. Schultze paints his works in several different layers. As soon as something takes shape, it is "disturbed" by further overpainting; the "successful" forms the basis for the new, which changes and covers it. When looking at it, the eye always remains in motion and is unsettled when trying to comprehend the perfect density of the composition. On a purely visual level, his works neither narrate nor describe anything, thus denying the viewer access to the pictorial content.

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