Günther Förg

Günther Förg is one of the most prominent German artists of his generation within abstract painting. Since his first solo exhibition in Munich in 1974 with a series of monochrome paintings, he has gained an international reputation as a printmaker, painter, photographer and sculptor. Monochromatic color fields are an important aspect of Günther Förg’s work - monochromatic painting remains the backbone to which his various bodies of work are all linked - but Förg is not just a minimalist painter. Although his works are often motivated by a critical mimicry of minimalism and modernist ideals, Förg’s work actually demonstrates a philosophical duality. His work is indeed an homage to modernism, but it also strives to highlight the failure of modernist ideals.

His fascination with failure is shared with many German artists of his post-war generation. The aftermath of World War II leaves younger generations struggling with ambivalence toward their own cultural legacy. This dilemma, though not always directly expressed in the content, plays a central role in Förg’s work. Förg’s work attempts to reassess the positivistic impulse that drove modern art---art based on paring down color, shape and line to a crucial essence---by using its devices.

Short biography

Gunther Förg was born in 1952 in Füssen, Germany and now lives in Areuse, Switzerland. He had recent solo exhibitions at Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria, Langen Foundation, Neuss, Germany, Kunstmuseum Basel – Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switserland, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Den Haag, The Netherlands, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria and Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, Germany.