Dieter Krieg

Lot description

Dieter Krieg (1937 Lindau am Bodensee - 2005 Quadrath-Ichendorf bei Köln). ohne Titel (6/29). 1971 Acrylic on canvas. Signed and dated on the stretcher.230 x 100 cm (90,5 x 39,3 in). Provenienz: Collection Prof. Robert Häusser (acquired directly from the artist). Ausstellung: Dieter Krieg, Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne (with the label on the stretcher).Dieter Krieg, Kunsthalle am Steubenplatz, Darmstadt/Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster/Kunsthalle Bielefeld, April - September 1972, cat.no. 25 (ill.).Vier deutsche Künstler in Stockholm, Galleriet, Kulturhuset Stockholm, 18.12.1974-02.02.1975, cat.no. 68, p. 23.Große Kunstausstellung München 1976, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 12.6.-26.9.1976, cat.no. 1028 (with two labels on the stretcher).Dieter Krieg - Bilder 1966-1983, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, 18.1.-4.3.1984. Dieter Krieg. Arbeiten 1965 - 1993, vol. 1, Die Hochformate, Stuttgart 1993, p. 39 (ill.).Dieter Krieg studied from 1958 to 1962 at the Karlsruhe Art Academy under HAP Grieshaber and Herbert Kitzel. Krieg was - not least thanks to his teachers - among the most powerful and most individual painters of his generation. Along with Horst Antes and Walter Stöhrer, Krieg is an exponent of the 'New Figuration' that countered the primacy of abstraction with representation of the human figure at that time. By 1966 Krieg had been awarded the Deutsche Preis der Jugend in Baden-Baden, which was followed by other prizes and distinctions. Not long afterwards he was awarded the Organisers' Prize at the Biennale Danuvius 68 in Bratislava as well as the Art Prizes of the cities of Bremen and Darmstadt. From the early 1970s the representation of the human figure receded into the background in Krieg's work, replaced by simple objects such as cages and tubs, for instance. Realised in grisaille, they link perfection of representation with a deliberate, intentional bleakness. These are pictures that want to be anything but brilliant. They are icons of the ignored and overlooked, which confront the viewer with grey smoothness. Like all these works, our 'Käfig' ['Cage'] evokes a déjà vu experience in viewers that brings the picture closer to them only to be rejected again because of alienating details such as rods arranged without a functional purpose. In this blend of the palpable and the illusory, the familiar and the disconcerting, lies the appeal of these pictures, that continually challenge viewers without, however, entirely revealing their ambivalent meaning. After participating in the Venice Biennale, Krieg was appointed professor in 1978 at the venerable and prestigious Düsseldorf Art Academy and held it for nearly twenty-five years. Honours such as the Karl Stöhrer Prize (1985) and the Hans Thoma Prize of the State of Baden-Württemberg (1993), to name only two of many, were showered on Dieter Krieg in the years that followed. Dieter Krieg died on 26 November 2005. The Cologne Fine Art Prize was awarded to him posthumously in 2006. [ME]Good overall impression. With minor surface dirt.