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