rupprecht geiger at gwangju art biennale 2010

rote trombe, 1985 in collaboration with florian geiger dyed nylon image © designboom

rupprecht geiger (b.1908, d.2009 munich, germany) was an abstract painter and sculptor known for his innovatively shaped canvases and an intense fascination with the color red. the only child of the painter willi geiger, rupprecht was originally trained as an architect and practiced his trade at various firms in germany until the beginning of WWII, when he fought briefly on the russian front and served as a military painter in the ukraine. after the war, geiger moved back to munich and began making abstract paintings. one year later, he helped to form the group zen 49, an organization of like-minded painters who practiced farbfeldmalerei (color field painting), a style whose simplicity and straightforwardness had, they believed, a kinship with zen meditative practices. during this period, geiger created monochromatic geometric canvases that broke with the normative rectangular format, taking the form of circles, rhombuses, and other irregular shapes, years before similar innovations were made in the united states.

in the 1970s, geiger began a decades-long engagement with the color red, in all its hues and densities. to make these vibrantly colored works, geiger would often apply his pain with a spray techniques that gave his surfaces a sumptuous depth and consistency. perhaps the culmination of  this work is rote trombe (red whirlwind, 1985), an installation-style sculpture that takes the form of a massive funnel of red fabric. when viewed from below, the work presents an all encompassing field of red, allowing the viewer to meditate on the essence of geiger’s idiosyncratic visual obsession.

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom

image © designboom