
K. O. Götz 1992, Photo: Christoph Kreutzenbeck
1914 | Born in Aachen |
1932 | Attends the Aachen School of Arts and Crafts |
1941 | Study semester at the Dresden Art Academy |
1948 | Art award "Young West |
1948-53 | Editor of the magazine "Meta |
1949 | Member of the group COBRA |
1952 | "Quadriga" exhibition in Frankfurt |
1958 | German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale |
1959 | Participation in the documenta II in Kassel |
1959-79 | Professorship for free painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy |
1987 | Participation in documenta VIII in Kassel |
1996 | State Prize for Painting of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate |
2007 | Awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany |
2017 | died on August 19 in Niederbreitbach / Wolfenacker |
Karl Otto Götz is one of the most important painters of the German Informel. His painting is non-representational, non-abstracting, not derived from nameable objects or landscapes. His painting is pure painting, quasi in its original state, fluid, spontaneous, expressive - without a depictive function or illusionistic depth effect. In the early 1950s Götz spreads his brush strokes and squeegee strokes completely freely, spontaneously and loosely over the canvas. Since 1954 his painting and squeegee rhythms follow certain pictorial schemes. These schemes are characterized by comparable divisions and rhythms, but can only be approximately named with words such as "vortex pictures," "waterfalls," or "grottos." The speed of color application is extremely high. Instead of clearly delineated forms, the scraps of paint spatulaed and flung onto the canvas form transitions and interlocks everywhere beyond classical principles of form.
He negates the constricting forms of the brushstroke of previous non-objective painting directions as well as the "cold abstraction" of constructed compositions.
By exposing his artistic action very experimentally to the unreflective, spontaneous painting gesture, pouring the paint and distributing it with brushes or squeegees, he challenges the instantaneous happening.
Link to the homepage of the painter, poet and scientist K. O. Götz