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Lot Essay
‘I think if we take a broader perspective we could say that, fundamentally as soon as we engage with painting, we have the same problems that faced those at the beginning of the century or even before; problems around colour, form, composition.’ – Günther Förg
The present three works by Günther Förg (lots 61-63) form a resplendent trio of the artist’s lead paintings, an extensive and celebrated series of which examples are held in public institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Tate Modern, London. Each work presents a shimmering field of lead framed by a rectilinear zone of flat colour: one is bracketed by blue to its right-hand side and upper edge, another bears a band of red to the right, and the third a band of green to the left. Förg’s lead works were central to his oeuvre, allowing him to explore the relationships between artwork and object, material and form, which fascinated him throughout his career. He was particularly interested in the effect of the soft, malleable qualities of the lead that became visible through the thin layers of paint which he applied to the surface. ‘I like very much the qualities of lead – the surface, the heaviness’, Förg explained; ‘it gives the colour a different density and weight ... with the normal canvas you often have to kill the ground, give it something to react against. With the metals you already have something - its scratches, scrapes’ (G. Förg, quoted in D. Ryan, Talking Painting, Karlsruhe 1997, http:/www.david-ryan.co.uk/Gunther0Forg). With its crinkles, blemishes, furrows and lines, the lead surface becomes an infinite arena of texture and depth, whose inconsistencies and instabilities work in counterpoint with its imposed geometric forms. In these works, the lead is allowed to write its own visual story: oxidised by the atmosphere and redefined by its surroundings, it becomes a living, breathing surface.
Although often reminiscent of works by artists such as Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, or – as here – the Neo-Plastic compositions of Piet Mondrian, Förg’s lead paintings refuse any transcendental claim. Indeed, he consciously distanced himself from the near-spiritual aesthetic espoused by the American Abstract Expressionists. Distinguishing his aims from those of his predecessors, Förg explained, ‘Newman and Rothko attempted to rehabilitate in their works a unity and an order that for them had been lost ... For me, abstract art today is what one sees and nothing more’ (G. Förg, quoted in Günther Förg: Painting / Sculpture /Installation, exh. cat., 1989, Newport Beach, p. 6). Echoing Frank Stella’s famous words that ‘what you see is what you see’, Förg belonged to a post-modern generation for whom abstraction was no longer a means of expression that needed to be defended, sublimated and theorised; rather, it had become one means of expression among many others. ‘The reason for the continued importance of Förg’s oeuvre becomes clear’, the German critic Andreas Schlaegel observed. ‘The evolution of his direct, subjective engagement with the aesthetic of the sublime – conducted without the fear of stereotypical taboos – oscillates between appropriation and homage, yet Förg does so without ironic quotations or other such cheap distancing techniques. Instead, he throws mythical ballast overboard and appropriates picture-making strategies in a way that makes them look new’ (A. Schlaegel, quoted in B. Weber, ‘Günther Förg, German Artist Who Made Modernism His Theme, Dies at 61’, New York Times, 18 December 2013). In the rippling, heavy and ambiguous surfaces of his lead paintings, Förg frees abstraction from its historical baggage, reconfiguring the picture plane as a liberated zone of unfettered material expression.
The present three works by Günther Förg (lots 61-63) form a resplendent trio of the artist’s lead paintings, an extensive and celebrated series of which examples are held in public institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Tate Modern, London. Each work presents a shimmering field of lead framed by a rectilinear zone of flat colour: one is bracketed by blue to its right-hand side and upper edge, another bears a band of red to the right, and the third a band of green to the left. Förg’s lead works were central to his oeuvre, allowing him to explore the relationships between artwork and object, material and form, which fascinated him throughout his career. He was particularly interested in the effect of the soft, malleable qualities of the lead that became visible through the thin layers of paint which he applied to the surface. ‘I like very much the qualities of lead – the surface, the heaviness’, Förg explained; ‘it gives the colour a different density and weight ... with the normal canvas you often have to kill the ground, give it something to react against. With the metals you already have something - its scratches, scrapes’ (G. Förg, quoted in D. Ryan, Talking Painting, Karlsruhe 1997, http:/www.david-ryan.co.uk/Gunther0Forg). With its crinkles, blemishes, furrows and lines, the lead surface becomes an infinite arena of texture and depth, whose inconsistencies and instabilities work in counterpoint with its imposed geometric forms. In these works, the lead is allowed to write its own visual story: oxidised by the atmosphere and redefined by its surroundings, it becomes a living, breathing surface.
Although often reminiscent of works by artists such as Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, or – as here – the Neo-Plastic compositions of Piet Mondrian, Förg’s lead paintings refuse any transcendental claim. Indeed, he consciously distanced himself from the near-spiritual aesthetic espoused by the American Abstract Expressionists. Distinguishing his aims from those of his predecessors, Förg explained, ‘Newman and Rothko attempted to rehabilitate in their works a unity and an order that for them had been lost ... For me, abstract art today is what one sees and nothing more’ (G. Förg, quoted in Günther Förg: Painting / Sculpture /Installation, exh. cat., 1989, Newport Beach, p. 6). Echoing Frank Stella’s famous words that ‘what you see is what you see’, Förg belonged to a post-modern generation for whom abstraction was no longer a means of expression that needed to be defended, sublimated and theorised; rather, it had become one means of expression among many others. ‘The reason for the continued importance of Förg’s oeuvre becomes clear’, the German critic Andreas Schlaegel observed. ‘The evolution of his direct, subjective engagement with the aesthetic of the sublime – conducted without the fear of stereotypical taboos – oscillates between appropriation and homage, yet Förg does so without ironic quotations or other such cheap distancing techniques. Instead, he throws mythical ballast overboard and appropriates picture-making strategies in a way that makes them look new’ (A. Schlaegel, quoted in B. Weber, ‘Günther Förg, German Artist Who Made Modernism His Theme, Dies at 61’, New York Times, 18 December 2013). In the rippling, heavy and ambiguous surfaces of his lead paintings, Förg frees abstraction from its historical baggage, reconfiguring the picture plane as a liberated zone of unfettered material expression.