George Pfahler
Work in the collection: Georg Pfahler, GP.OR/ZAD, 1964, acrylic on canvas, 175 x 160 cm
Georg Karl Pfahler was a German painter, artist and art professor. The first pictures after completing his studies are reminiscent of the pointillist painting style of his role model and teacher Willi Baumeister. From 1959 he created his formative pictures with clearly defined areas and few colors (mainly blue, red, black and white, occasionally also orange and green). In the years that followed, the forms became even more simplified to become exclusively vehicles of color and their relationships to each other. Due to the strong simplification of the forms, the color in Pfahler’s pictures gains a significant impact. The artist understands color as a surface that creates form and space and is expansive. The relationship between the picture as a whole and the room as a whole is particularly interesting for the artist. The color form should appear to stand in the room and create an immediately psychologically aggressive effect. The wall thus becomes part of the picture or the picture becomes the wall.
born 1926 in Emetzheim, Germany
1948 Beginning of studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg
1950-1954 attended the Stuttgart Art Academy
1956 founding member of Gruppe 11, which was oriented towards action painting and informal painting
1958 Pfahler breaks away from the informal style and adds the term formative to his pictures
From 1962 representative of the Hard Erdge Group in Germany
From the beginning of the 1960 ‘s he achieved his international breakthrough
died 2002 in Emetzheim, Germany