Gotthard Graubner, Raum der Stille

The work of German artist Gotthard Graubner develops the independent life of colour. Free of references and not connected to anything other than itself, color is paramount. His meditative canvases generate an impression of vitality and concentration—the expression of color meets the energy of volume.

After experimenting with geometric shapes in the mid 1950s, he began to integrate colour cushions into his pictures in the 1960s. He placed them underneath the canvas and covered them with perlon fabric. This was an attempt to enhance the spatial effects of his surfaces. Colour became the medium of the work itself. Colour doesn’t identify objects. It’s not linked to shape, but rather it tries to eliminate appearance. Graubner creates an imaginary space where interior surfaces, in contrast with the backdrop, take shape as if they’re weightless.

The German art historian Max Imdahl explains Graubner’s work as picture bodies, spaces of sensation in which “colour-space and body, intangible vision and tangible facticity cooperate in a special relationship.” According to Berke Inel, “The artist presents color to the audience as though it were a landscape.” This landscape only appears to be made of only a single colour. On closer inspection, the canvas is made of many, which is evident of the artist’s detailed process and unique approach.

Never one to follow trends, the artist preferred not to get lost in endless philosophies and theories about his work. If he was able to express his emotions through words, songs or writings, he would. But he chose to paint them.

Raum der Stille referred to the quiet activity of the artist, as well as to the emotional reaction of the viewer of his work. The city is a noisy place, and it has an effect on the minds of its citizens. The works in the exhibition embodied a place of silence, their composition based merely on colour and texture, removing a layer of narrative noise that we normally seek in art—a direction of what to think and feel. To stand in front of a Graubner work is to meditate on the power of art and to simply see colour live and breathe.