Sale: 470 / Post War I, June 09. 2018 in Munich Lot 956

 

956
Günther Förg
Fenster I, 1989.
Acrylic
Estimate:
€ 100,000 / $ 108,000
Sold:
€ 125,000 / $ 135,000

(incl. surcharge)
Fenster I. 1989.
Acrylic on panel.
Signed, dated "27/12/89" and titled in upper left. 160 x 140 cm (62.9 x 55.1 in).

The work is registered in the archive with the number WVF.89.B.0840. We are grateful to Mr Michael Neff of Estate Günther Förg for his kind support in cataloging this lot.

PROVENANCE: Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia (since 1994).

"It is crucial to me to maintain naivety. To get into things and to make a virtue (out) of necessity. Sure, there is always some sort of program in art. [..] That's just what I try to avoid."
Günther Förg, 1990, quote from: Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, Munich 1995, p. 2

Owing to the fact that he had maintained artistic naivety and his courage to dare and try out new things, Günther Förg's versatile artistic creation, which includes painting, photography, sculpting, drawing, as well as works in public spaces, is hard to determine. His paintings since the 1980s are characterized by the colors' effects and the brush-stroke duct. Contrary to Hard-Edge Painting, the broad brush makes his color fields more lively, it animates the monochrome surface and sets it in motion. In our work from 1989 Förg overpainted the yellow area with black in spontaneous horizontal and vertical strokes of the brush. This stylistic device unites the pure color effect and a classic pictorial component. In many cases the pictorial construction disappears behind a processual creativity. "Förg's position and method become evident through acting out formal structures and motifs in different materials and medias: It is not the single autonomous work, but the work process that matters and which is the message“ (Ingrid Rein, in: Günther Förg, ex. cat. Fridericianum Kassel, Stuttgart 1990, p. 10). Günther Förg died in Freiburg im Breisgau in December 2013. Today his works are in possession of many important collections, such as the Städelsche Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt a. M. and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. [JS]



956
Günther Förg
Fenster I, 1989.
Acrylic
Estimate:
€ 100,000 / $ 108,000
Sold:
€ 125,000 / $ 135,000

(incl. surcharge)