Hans Peter Reuter
Year of birth, place
1942
Germany
Role at the ZKM
- Artist of the Collection
Biography
Hans Peter Reuter was born in Schwenningen in 1942. He attended (1963-67) the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe and the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich. Subsequently, he studied Art History at Karlsruhe University (1967-69), and from 1969 to 1975 he taught at a high school in Karlsruhe. In 1973 he received the Villa Romana Prize, enabling him to spend a year in Florence. He subsequently won other prizes and awards. Since 1985 Reuter has held a professorship at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Nuremberg. He lives in Karlsruhe and Lauf.
Reuter is best known for his blue pictures and objects, their perspectivally constructed grid of tiles evoking imaginatively coloured spaces. His carefully calculated trompe-l'oeil pictures represent a connection between concrete and illusionistic painting. Since the 1970s, with very few exceptions, he has painted exclusively in tones of blue, and for many years only in ultramarine. In the 1960s he started with painting. His first motifs were nudes whose body shapes were increasingly transformed into entangled, later arboreal forms. Such forms eventually disappeared from Reuter's work. He then painted interiors in which he used suggestive illusionism to create surrealistic spatial fantasies out of views of tiled baths and columned halls. In the 1990s Reuter has focused on the painted picture itself, as a physical entity. His frames have been widened to the depth of a tile breadth, with the result that the picture surface itself effectively extends around the edges and assumes an objective, sculptural quality. Cubic forms, rendered in perspectival foreshortening, and mounted on styrofoam blocks, are grouped on the wall into formations resembling constellations. Of particular significance is the presentation of Reuter's work in the real space of the exhibition. Reuter has contributed to many projects for the incorporation of works of art within the architecture of new buildings.
Individual exhibitions (selection)
1969 Galerie am Karlsplatz, Karlsruhe
1972 Forum Kunst, Rottweil; Galerie Denise René Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
1980 Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn; Galerie der Villa Massimo, Rome
1982 Staempfli Gallery, New York; Kunsthalle in der Harmonie, Heidelberg
1987 Städtische Galerie Altes Theater, Ravensburg
1988 Galerie der Stadt Esslingen, Villa Merkel, Esslingen; Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen
1992 »Licht-Raum, Aquarelle«, Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
1993 Galerie Rottloff, Karlsruhe
1995 Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
1996 Kunsthalle Nürnberg; Galerie Defet, Nuremberg
1997 Kunst- und Gewerbeverein Pforzheim, Reuchlinhaus, Pforzheim
Group exhibitions (selection)
1973 »14 x 14«, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden
1974 »Five from Germany«, Serpentine Gallery, London
1976 »Menschenleere Räume«, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
1977 documenta VI, Kassel; »Neun Bewerber um das Annemarie- und Will-Grohmann-Stipendium«, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden
1983 »Kunst-Landschaft-Architektur«, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
1986 »Symmetrie«, Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt
1987 »Mathematik in der Kunst der letzten 30 Jahre«, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen
1988 »Villa Romana Florenz«, Städtische Galerie Esslingen, Villa Merkel, Esslingen
1990 »Blau: Farbe der Ferne«, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg
1993 »Kunst der Neunziger Jahre«, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
1994 »Lichtung«, Künstlerhaus Berlin, Obere Galerie am Lützowplatz, Berlin
1995 »Kunst in Deutschland«, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn
[Frauke Syamken, 1997]
Reuter is best known for his blue pictures and objects, their perspectivally constructed grid of tiles evoking imaginatively coloured spaces. His carefully calculated trompe-l'oeil pictures represent a connection between concrete and illusionistic painting. Since the 1970s, with very few exceptions, he has painted exclusively in tones of blue, and for many years only in ultramarine. In the 1960s he started with painting. His first motifs were nudes whose body shapes were increasingly transformed into entangled, later arboreal forms. Such forms eventually disappeared from Reuter's work. He then painted interiors in which he used suggestive illusionism to create surrealistic spatial fantasies out of views of tiled baths and columned halls. In the 1990s Reuter has focused on the painted picture itself, as a physical entity. His frames have been widened to the depth of a tile breadth, with the result that the picture surface itself effectively extends around the edges and assumes an objective, sculptural quality. Cubic forms, rendered in perspectival foreshortening, and mounted on styrofoam blocks, are grouped on the wall into formations resembling constellations. Of particular significance is the presentation of Reuter's work in the real space of the exhibition. Reuter has contributed to many projects for the incorporation of works of art within the architecture of new buildings.
Individual exhibitions (selection)
1969 Galerie am Karlsplatz, Karlsruhe
1972 Forum Kunst, Rottweil; Galerie Denise René Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
1980 Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn; Galerie der Villa Massimo, Rome
1982 Staempfli Gallery, New York; Kunsthalle in der Harmonie, Heidelberg
1987 Städtische Galerie Altes Theater, Ravensburg
1988 Galerie der Stadt Esslingen, Villa Merkel, Esslingen; Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen
1992 »Licht-Raum, Aquarelle«, Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
1993 Galerie Rottloff, Karlsruhe
1995 Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
1996 Kunsthalle Nürnberg; Galerie Defet, Nuremberg
1997 Kunst- und Gewerbeverein Pforzheim, Reuchlinhaus, Pforzheim
Group exhibitions (selection)
1973 »14 x 14«, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden
1974 »Five from Germany«, Serpentine Gallery, London
1976 »Menschenleere Räume«, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
1977 documenta VI, Kassel; »Neun Bewerber um das Annemarie- und Will-Grohmann-Stipendium«, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden
1983 »Kunst-Landschaft-Architektur«, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
1986 »Symmetrie«, Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt
1987 »Mathematik in der Kunst der letzten 30 Jahre«, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen
1988 »Villa Romana Florenz«, Städtische Galerie Esslingen, Villa Merkel, Esslingen
1990 »Blau: Farbe der Ferne«, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg
1993 »Kunst der Neunziger Jahre«, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
1994 »Lichtung«, Künstlerhaus Berlin, Obere Galerie am Lützowplatz, Berlin
1995 »Kunst in Deutschland«, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn
[Frauke Syamken, 1997]