拍品專文
This work will be included in the forthcoming Gerhard Hoehme Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Mrs Margarete Hoehme, Neuss-Selikum.
The all-over surface of Das Wilde Blaue Bild (The Wild Blue Painting), uncompromisingly abstract and clearly driven by chromatic concerns, relates Hoehme's painting to the parallel developments of Abstract Expressionists in the United States, particularly to the work of Jackson Pollock, and to the Art Informel movement surfacing in post-war Europe.
As the title suggests, the central preoccupation of Hoehme is not a subject lying outside of what is visible on the canvas, but the painting itself, its colour, surface and the interplay of shapes upon it. It is thus an autonomous object, freed from the constraints of representation. The thick impasto, lending a three-dimensionality to the canvas, underlines Hoehme's attempt at reaching beyond the flat surface, breaking the rectangular impositions of the traditional, window-on-the-world-like canvas. This becomes particularly apparent when Hoehme's Borkenobjekte (Bark-Objects) series from 1957 are taken into consideration, where the shape of the paint support itself becomes irregular, jagged and organic, and the thickness of the applied paint suggests paint itself as being both the subject and the object of Hoehme's art.
Das Wilde Blaue Bild had been bought at an exhibition of the work of the artist on 3 February 1958, as the diary of the father of the present owners attests. In his entry on that day, the assured eye of the collector once again comes to the fore:
"It then dawned on me that these people truly represent a new movement of significance. Now it will have to be made clear which of these painters have anything truly great to say, for as everywhere, there will be many followers. I like some of the Hoehme paintings. At first I was reminded of marbleised flooring. Das Grosse Blau in Aufruhr, or something to that effect, I quite liked, the price is quite high for such a young artist, maybe compared to Götz, whose paintings fetch up to DM3300, they are relatively cheap. Let's see what happens when I see the best of them next to each other in fine weather.
...I buy Das Wilde Blaue Bild by Gerhard Hoehme, which distinguishes itself, at 170 x 120cm has remained my largest painting."
The all-over surface of Das Wilde Blaue Bild (The Wild Blue Painting), uncompromisingly abstract and clearly driven by chromatic concerns, relates Hoehme's painting to the parallel developments of Abstract Expressionists in the United States, particularly to the work of Jackson Pollock, and to the Art Informel movement surfacing in post-war Europe.
As the title suggests, the central preoccupation of Hoehme is not a subject lying outside of what is visible on the canvas, but the painting itself, its colour, surface and the interplay of shapes upon it. It is thus an autonomous object, freed from the constraints of representation. The thick impasto, lending a three-dimensionality to the canvas, underlines Hoehme's attempt at reaching beyond the flat surface, breaking the rectangular impositions of the traditional, window-on-the-world-like canvas. This becomes particularly apparent when Hoehme's Borkenobjekte (Bark-Objects) series from 1957 are taken into consideration, where the shape of the paint support itself becomes irregular, jagged and organic, and the thickness of the applied paint suggests paint itself as being both the subject and the object of Hoehme's art.
Das Wilde Blaue Bild had been bought at an exhibition of the work of the artist on 3 February 1958, as the diary of the father of the present owners attests. In his entry on that day, the assured eye of the collector once again comes to the fore:
"It then dawned on me that these people truly represent a new movement of significance. Now it will have to be made clear which of these painters have anything truly great to say, for as everywhere, there will be many followers. I like some of the Hoehme paintings. At first I was reminded of marbleised flooring. Das Grosse Blau in Aufruhr, or something to that effect, I quite liked, the price is quite high for such a young artist, maybe compared to Götz, whose paintings fetch up to DM3300, they are relatively cheap. Let's see what happens when I see the best of them next to each other in fine weather.
...I buy Das Wilde Blaue Bild by Gerhard Hoehme, which distinguishes itself, at 170 x 120cm has remained my largest painting."