Karl Otto Götz
Ohne Titel
1957
Gouache on cardboard
32.5 × 25 cm / 12 13/16 × 9 13/16 in
Signed and also signed again, dated and stamped »Sammlung Rissa-Götz« on the verso
The work has been registered for the catalogue raisonné of the works on paper currently being prepared by the K.O. Götz and Rissa Foundation, Niederbreitbach-Wolfenacker
We would like to thank Joachim Lissmann, K.O. Götz and Rissa Foundation, for the kind confirmation of the work̛s authenticity
The artist ̛s studio; Collection Rissa-Götz; Private Collection Northern Germany
- Galerie Ludorff, Neuerwerbungen Frühjahr 2021, Düsseldorf 2021
- Galerie Ludorff, "Neuerwerbungen Frühjahr 2021", Düsseldorf 2021, S. 52
Karl Otto Götz began exploring abstraction as early as 1933, but was soon banned from exhibiting and painting by the National Socialists. His early work, created before the Second World War, was almost completely destroyed in a bombing raid on Dresden. After the war, Götz was the only German artist to become a member of the international COBRA group of artists around Karel Appel, Asger Jorn and Corneille in 1949.
His non-objective painting was a central contribution to the worldwide movement in the visual arts, which broke new formal ground after 1945 by initiating the radical dissolution of the classical principle of form.1)
From 1952, Götz found his typical, gestural painting style, which he varied in countless compositions from then on. His paintings are well thought out. Before Götz begins an oil painting, he first makes numerous studies in gouache, acrylic or pencil in order to develop a basic composition. Only when the idea for the painting has matured does he take up brush and canvas. As he often works in large formats, the canvas lies on the floor in front of him. The previously conceived and precisely calculated forms and structures are then transferred to the canvas in a matter of seconds. First, the canvas is covered with a primer; in the next step, Götz applies the mostly black colour to the canvas using large brushes he has made himself. He then works on individual areas with a squeegee and blurs or removes previously applied colour material before, in a final step, working on the still wet layers of paint with a dry brush to emphasise structures and add accents.
The painter's works can be read as a European response to American abstract expressionism. The artist's success initially began abroad in the mid-1950s: France, the USA and Italy honoured the artist early on with solo exhibitions. He was represented at the Venice Biennale in 1958 and took part in documenta II in 1959. Götz was an outstanding personality not only as an artist, but also as a teacher. From 1959 to 1979, he taught as a professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Numerous important artists such as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Gotthard Graubner and Franz Erhard Walther were among his students.
1) This common movement with regional differences has gone down in art history as "Abstract Expressionism" in the USA, known in France as "Tachisme" or "Abstraction Lyrique" and in Germany as "Informel".
