1930 | born in Trossingen |
1949-51 | studied at the art school in the Bernstein monastery and then at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart under Willi Baumeister |
1955/58 | Upper Swabian Art Prize |
1956 | Art Prize "Young West" of the city of Recklinghausen |
1958 | Premio Marzotto in Valdagno |
1960 | Scholarship of the Villa Massimo in Rome |
1995 | Awarded the honorary title of Professor by the State of Baden-Württemberg |
| lives in Hüfingen |
After early works influenced by Cubism and then by Fritz Winter, Kiess returned to a basic position at the end of the 1950s: starting from the forms of objects, he reduced the visible phenomena until finally the object disappeared and was transformed into spots of color. Once the color spots oriented to the orthogonal reference system had been found, the pictorial world could now develop independently. Kiess reduces the restless carpet of spots and combines larger color fields. The result is fields, abstract landscapes, between light and dark, often in subtly differentiated delicate blue and gray colors. The coloring remains earthy and in the valeurs tuned to a harmonious key. Great harmony and balance combine with temperament, heightening and tension.