Günther Förg was born in Füssen in 1952. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich (1973-1979), the artist gravitated towards the chromatic in-betweenness of grey (which is neither black nor white, but ‘nothing’ and therefore ‘free’ in the eyes of the young Förg), a somewhat surprising starting point considering the colourful compositions for which he is best known today. From 1992 to 1999, he taught at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung (University of Arts and Design) in Karlsruhe, later continuing his teaching career as a professor in Munich.
Artistically, Förg captured and inevitably reacted to his environment. Photography was a lasting passion of his career. Armed with his 35 mm camera, the artist documented the edifices, lines and shadows of various ages of the European modern era, from Bauhaus functionality to fascist landmarks. His painting is a tribute to the experimentations typical of the American gestural, abstract compositions influencing German artists with their impactful chromatic urgency. From the late 1970s onwards, post-minimal trends would nourish his core interest. Unsurprisingly, sculpture would become a new and fruitful avenue of research. The medium’s physicality would continue to be the vehicle of imagery, as in his 1988 mirror installation in the Rotterdam metro station. Body fragmentation would become a theme in the 1990s, leading Förg to what he himself perceived as an ‘inevitable’ embrace of figuration.
Regardless of the medium, the grid – whether architectonic or purely formal – is the basis of Günther Förg’s visual deconstructions. This seemingly abstract structural tool is often used in a complex fashion to convey figurative meaning. An effective example of this technique is Förg’s poster for Roland Garros in 1996: within the orange and green mesh, a court and net appear.
This obsession carried over into the 21st century, specifically through his Gitterbilder series. Void and negative space are brashly interrupted by colourful streaks that function as delimitations. Comparisons with Cy Twombly and other early modernists bring Förg’s own practice full circle in an evolutionary sense.
The artist held his first solo exhibition at Rüdiger Schöttle Gallery in 1980, in Munich where he exhibited a series of monochrome paintings. In 1992, he took part in the documenta IX. An exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam retraced important steps in his career in 1995. Other solo exhibitions have been housed by the Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria; the Langen Foundation, Neuss, Germany; Kunstmuseum Basle, Switzerland; Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany; Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria; Museum der Stadt Füssen, Füssen, Germany; and Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany.
Förg passed away in 2013.
