Oil on canvas
Dornacher/Geiger 233. Signed verso. Twice dated as well as inscribed on stretcher. 85 x 100,5 cm (33,4 x 39,5 in)

PROVENANCE: Private collection South Germany.

Rupprecht Geiger was born in Munich in 1908 as the only child of the painter and graphic artist Willi Geiger. He spent his childhood and his youth in Munich and in the foot-hills of the Bavarian Alps. In 1924 his family moved to Spain for one year where. Geiger made his first drawings and water-colors during this period. One year after having returned from Spain, in 1926, Geiger attended Eduard Pfeiffer's architectural class at the School of Applied Arts in Munich. He graduated as an architect in 1935 and spent half a year in Rome together with his father. Geiger then worked in a Munich architect's bureau until he was sent to the Russian front in 1940. His dark-colored landscapes in watercolor originate from this period. Geiger returned to Germany for a short period in 1942 and then works as a war painter in the Ukraine. Geiger returned to Munich after the end of the war. His first abstract work was exhibited at the "Salon des Réalités Nouvelles" in Paris in 1948. One year later Geiger joined up with Baumeister, Matschinsky-Denninghoff and Winter to found the group "ZEN 49".
Geiger discovered his true style during the 1950s, of which our work is a prime example. The artist worked with complementary contrasts, such as orange and blue - in compositions and forms which are both organically as well as geometrically developed. Geiger plays with the effects of monochrome and modulated color fields, thus creating two- and three-dimensional effects, protruding and recessed layers, matt and lucent parts, static calmness and pulsating vibrancy.

He repeatedly showed works at the documenta in Kassel between 1959 and 1977. He gave up working as an architect in 1962 in order to concentrate on his painting. In 1965 Geiger was appointed professor at the Academy in Düsseldorf, a post that he held until 1976. Geiger has been a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich since 1982. The artist lives and works in Munich. [NB].