Günther FörgWandmalerei /
Wall Paintings 1978–2013

A first summary insight into a fundamental and at the same time immensely extensive aspect of the work! When Günther Förg died on 5 December 2013, he had still been working intensively that same year on a catalogue raisonné of his wall paintings, which, however, he was no longer able to complete. Günther Förg’s wall paintings are one of the central aspects of his entire artistic output. They opened up manifold possibilities of presentation for him, could be combined with photographic and painterly works, and were always conceived as a clarification of the space, as a means of giving rhythm to its inner structure. In this, in his light-footed appropriation, he was in no way inferior to the great historical predecessors, whether Malevich, Rothko or Palermo; indeed, in this respect he may now and then even have surpassed them. In any case, not a few of his artist colleagues of the same generation envy him today for when and how he was able to handle individual rooms as well as entire enfilades with such assurance. In 1986, on the occasion of Günther Förg’s exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern, Max Wechsler wrote in the newspaper “Vaterland” that “the design of the space and the presentation of the pictures interpenetrate quite naturally. At first the rooms breathe a cool, almost design-like elegance which, beyond all meanings, brings out the unique architecture of the Kunsthalle and invites a kind of strolling. Gradually, however, the calculation behind the staging takes effect, and the heightened presence of the rooms begins to radiate, to open up other spaces: views in and views out. Structures become effective, moods are conjured up and feelings awakened; a complex system of relationships opens up that simultaneously breaks the whole open and holds it together.” The present volume now takes up the notebooks kept by the artist and reproduces them in facsimile. A catalogue raisonné must remain reserved for a later, careful scholarly treatment. What this publication does seek to provide, however, is a first summary insight into this fundamental and at the same time immensely extensive aspect of the work. To this end the data sheets, corrected by Günther Förg in his own hand, have been carefully reproduced in facsimile and a number of sheets supplemented with approximately identical colour samples.

Exhibition:
Deichtorhallen Hamburg, 31/7 – 25/10/2015