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POMERANZ COLLECTION

KATHARINA GROSSE

Untitled
2005
Acrylic on canvas
116 x 300 cm
2005/1037L
Inv. Nr. 10
Photo: © VBK, Wien, 2011

Born in 1961 in Freiburg, Germany
Lives and works in Düsseldorf & Berlin, Germany

The work of Katharina Grosse, who is also a professor at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, breaks the boundaries of the painterly tradition, by exploring the process of painting and its expansive and transformative qualities. Using a wide range of surfaces, including aluminium, canvas, paper, and existing architectural elements, Grosse’s abstract paintings, sometimes site-specific, are executed in a manner that emphasizes colour over brushwork, movement over stasis, and transience over permanence. She often uses a spray gun, the tool of a coachbuilder more than that of a graffiti artist. This technique offers a sort of “machinic” extension of the artist’s hand. Her site-specific interventions intend to immerse the viewer both physically and visually into the work. She considers her way of painting as a strong and sensual experience, widely open to improvisation and influenced by the setting. Her references come closer to the European tradition of colour and its power – Delacroix, for example – than to the recent history of abstract painting. The painting Untitled (2005) is a clear example of this uninhibited use of bright colours and of her unfinished style. The memory of the artwork is made visible through the different layers of colour and the unevenness of the transparency of the different brushstrokes.