Along with the grid- or cross-like linear structures that regularly appear in Paul Klee's watercolors from 1913 onward, Edvard Munch's late work was one of the critical sources of inspiration for Günther Förg's "Gitterbilder" (Grid Pictures) from the early 1990s of which our large-format composition on wood is a particularly early example. Förg's “Grid Pictures” transformed and alienated art-historical impulses that were significant for the development of modern painting and transferred Munch's motifs and gestures into abstract painting. Klee's works are small and graphic, Munch's paintings are figurative, but they are set on the canvas in a free, cross-hatched style. Förg's creations, on the other hand, are abstract, monumental, and painterly. In his famous “Grid Pictures,” Förgs' painting attains a strength derived from the intrinsic value of color and the contrast between line and surface, from the graphic duct and compositional rigor.
Förg's painting is a devotion to color, the incessant attempt to bring out its inherent life and its almost infinite richness of variation through new combinations. Using a wide range of image carriers, his painting unites what appears to be irreconcilable almost effortlessly, combining elements of Concrete Art with gestural components: geometric rigor meets expressive spontaneity, a calculated system meets the spontaneous intuition of the application of paint. In an art talk with Siegfried Gohr, Förg, whose paintings are based on rough construction sketches and consist of only a single layer of paint, described the intuitive and spontaneous process behind his works as follows: “There is no such thing as waste in painting, and that goes for the lead painting too, because, if necessary, I make intuitive decisions; for example, to use some color or other, I paint something in curry, but if it does not work at all, I put a violet next to it and save the painting.” (G. Förg, quoted in: G. Förg in an art talk with Siegfried Gohr, Cologne 1997, p. 41). Whether in his serial works, grid pictures, lead pictures, or later large-scale compositions, Förg's painting had to be completed in a single go; the pictorial result had to be realized with a single layer of paint. In his painting, Förg repeatedly sought stylistic engagement with other artists. In addition to influences from pre-war modernism, the work of early-deceased Blinky Palermo also played a formative role for Förg when he was an art student in the 1970s. Later, American Action and Color Field Painting, such as the art of Willem de Kooning, Clifford Still, and Barnett Newman, became a source of inspiration. Förg adapted and transformed what he saw, repeatedly using novel impulses for color and form in his multifaceted work.
In 2014, the Museum Brandhorst in Munich presented the first posthumous retrospective of the artist's work. This was followed by the 2018 retrospective “Günther Förg. A Fragile Beauty” at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Dallas Museum of Art. In 2023, the Long Museum in Shanghai presented a major retrospective. Förg's paintings are part of numerous international museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. [JS]