Günther Förg

Günther Förg was born in Füssen in 1952. He studied (1973-79) at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, under K. F. Dahmen. Since 1992 he has been Professor of Painting at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe. The most recent of several awards he has received is the 'Wolfgang-Hahn-Preis' (1996). He lives in Areuse, Switzerland.

The starting point for Förg's artistic development is to be found in the large monochrome works that he exhibited in 1974. In 1976 he began experimenting with various alternative supports for painted work, such as lead and aluminium. In 1978 he also started painting murals and making sculptures, and much of his work took on the character of an installation. In the early 1980s he produced several series of large photographs of architectural subjects. One of Förg's central preoccupations is space. Unlike the traditional panel picture, Förg's paintings, his murals and the reflective surface of the glazing of his photographs reach into space and draw in the spectator. Förg values the qualities that distinguish one medium from another - traces of the brush-work in a painting, or of the chisel in a sculpture. The haptic qualities of his materials emphasize this approach.

Individual exhibitions (selection)
 
1984 kunstraum, Munich
1985 kunstraum, Munich, subsequently at Kunsthalle, Berne
1987 Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, subsequently Maison de la Culture et de la Communication, Saint-Etienne, Haags Geementemuseum, The Hague; »Günther Förg, Gesamte Editionen 1974-1988«, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam, subsequently at Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz
1990 Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, subsequently at Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent, Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig, Kunsthalle Tübingen, kunstraum, Munich; »Stations of the Cross«, Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne, subsequently at Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago
1993 »Günther Förg, Fotografien 1982-1992«, Deutscher Werkbund, Frankfurt/M, subsequently at Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart
1994 »Günther Förg, Druckgraphische Serien«, Kunstmuseum Bonn
1995 »Couplet 4 - Günther Förg Paintings 1974-1994«, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunstverein Hannover
1996 Kunstverein Hamburg; »Günther Förg - 11 Skulpturen 1995, 8 Bilder 1996, 4 Cansons 1996«, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A.; »Gitterbilder«, Kunstmuseum, Lucerne
1997 Haus für konstruktive und konkrete Kunst, Zürich; ALBA, Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Group exhibitions (selection)

1984 »Von hier aus«, Messegelände, Düsseldorf
1986 »Chambre d'amis«, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent
1989 »Bilderstreit«, Museum Ludwig, Rheinhallen, Cologne
1991 »Metropolis«, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
1992 »Photography on Contemporary German Art, '60 to the Present'«, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; documenta IX, Kassel; »Photography in Contemporary German Art: 1960 to the Present«, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, subsequently Dallas Museum of Art/Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, Dallas, The Saint-Louis Art Museum/ The Forum for Contemporary Art, Saint Louis, Missouri, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, Los Angeles, Cologne, Basle, Humlebaek
1993 »Der zerbrochene Spiegel«, Kunsthalle und Messepalast, Vienna, subsequently at Deichtorhallen, Hamburg
1996 »Nuevas Abstraciones«, Palacio Velázquez/Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, subsequently at Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Museu de Arte Contemporani, Barcelona; »Munch and after Munch or the obstinacy of painters«, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, subsequently at Munch Museet, Oslo; »Bilderserien - Serienbilder«, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Kunstbau, Munich; »Chaos, Wahnsinn«, Kunst.Halle.Krems, Krems; »Sammlung Speck«, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
1997 »Die Epoche der Moderne«, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin

[David Richardt, 1997]