Rolf Hans
Purpur-Gelb. 1966. Pastel on laid paper.
63x49 cm
From the cycle "Streifenbilder".
Ill.: © Kunsthandel Michael Draheim, Wiesbaden

"I never made art to make a living, I always made art to live". Said the artist Rolf Hans, who died in Basel in 1996, about himself. Accordingly, it is no surprise that the innovative works by the Frankfurt artist had been rather an insider's tip in the past.
Carlo Huber, former director of the Kunsthalle Basel had planned a solo exhibition, but unfortunately his severe illness and soon death put an end to those intentions.

Rolf Hans
Rot-Gelb-Grün. 1962. Watercolour on wove paper. 13x24 cm.
From the cycle "Fleckenbilder".
Ill.: © Kunsthandel Michael Draheim, Wiesbaden

"I feel honoured", said Robert Ketterer, owner of Ketterer Kunst "to be able to provide a suitable forum for the oeuvre of a talent such as Rolf Hans, and to bring his work, which so far only few art connoisseurs have been acquainted with, into the public’s attention".

"What is so unique about Rolf Hans is his ability to interpret impulses from nature and music in his art, so that the colours in his paintings are almost physically perceptible", adds gallery owner Michael Draheim, Wiesbaden, who is in charge of the artist’s estate.

Rolf Hans
Violett von Grün begrenzt. 1969.
Acrylic on canvas. 177,5 x 167 cm.
From the cycle "Eckenbilder".
Ill.: © Kunsthandel Michael Draheim, Wiesbaden

Rolf Hans (1938-1996) begins his artistic activities in the 1950s. He meets his wife Magda, who used to be married toQuadriga artist Heinz Kreutz. The latter became not only a teacher and mentor for Rolf Hans, but also a dear friend. From this time on Rolf Hans, who was, besides working in his profession as a banker and IT communication expert, also active as a photographer and musician, was captured by visual arts. At first he creates the socalled "Flecken- und Streifenbilder" (Spot- and Streak Pictures), in which he examines the effects of expressive colour configurations. From 1967 to 1970 he puts an emphasis on the "Schachtel- und Eckenbilder" (Box- and Corner Pictures), putting the focus on the visual qualities of colours, before he turns to the "Flächenbildern" (Surface Pictures) and thus to mixed shades of colours from the early to the mid 1970s. As of 1976 his artistic talent finds expression in the "Monochrome Bilder" (Monochrome Pictures), before he finally immerses himself in the object cycle "Poesie der Dinge" (Poetry of Things) in the late 1980s.

Rolf Hans
Figur XXI. 1995. Wood and iron. 149,5x25x22 cm.
From the cycle "Poesie der Dinge".
Ill.: © Kunsthandel Michael Draheim, Wiesbaden