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Gotthard Graubner

Work of art by Gotthard Graubner
What matters is not the sound of the gong, but its resonance.
Gotthard Graubner
With great sadness we mourn the passing of Gotthard Graubner who died on Friday, May 24, 2013.

With unerring consistency and impressive intensity Graubner allows color to become an autonomous force in his paintings, continually taking fresh approaches to exploring its qualities and its irrational power to influence us. Released from its servitude as a mere means of representing other things, color is a fundamental pictorial element in Graubner’s works, unfolding in manifold rich nuances a fascinating inner life that goes beyond the flat surface of the canvas, radiating out to create its own color space. In the course of his investigations, especially during the process of creating his object-like color space bodies, he becomes entangled deeper and deeper in an “adventure, [...] that never ends.”(Graubner)

Galerie m, exhibition Gotthard Graubner, 2015

In 2009 Galerie m was showing the exhibition Gotthard Graubner „Chapeau, mon ami“ which
the artist dedicates to the 40th anniversary of Galerie m Bochum and to its founder, his friend Alexander von Berswordt.
 
Exhibition Galerie m 2015
My images come about with the growing light, and are extinguished with the light; beginning and end are interchangeable.
They do not describe a state, they are a transition.
(in: „Europäische Avantgarde“ Frankfurt 1963)
Exhibition Galerie m Bochum, 2009
Movement - out, flowing, streaming, getting held up, being blocked, pushing through, flowing again, finding peace. That is the organic painting process.
(in: Ausst.-Kat. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg 1975)

For me, the artistic initiative begins when it sets the goal of creating a painterly organism. The painted object in this sense is classified only under the optical dimension, even when in the form of a pillow it also becomes a tactile object; it is still primarily ascribed to visual experience. Non-visual dimensions are not excluded here, for they do extend the scope of experience of the viewer, activating his sensibility.
Color unfolds as a color organism;
I observe it taking on a life of its own, I respect its own set of laws.
(in: Katalog der Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, 1969)
Etchings, Monotypes
works on paper
About the 4 monotypes from 2003.
6 Aquatinta-Etchings, Portfolio, 1976
Portfolio 6 Aquatinta etchings, 1976.
Detail, Portrait Graubner from Claus Goedicke
In the early '90th, Claus Goedicke photographed Gotthard Graubner, while working in his studiostudio at prints.