7276 - Grützke, Johannes

Grützke, Johannes In the Mudflats Colored chalks on brown packing paper. 1978. 100 x 160 cm. Monogrammed "J.G." and dated in black chalk in the lower right corner. In the seemingly endless mudflats of debris and mud, the woman sits—struck by the arrow of longing—between three lemur-like figures. In Grützke’s allegorical booklet of the same title, it is the personifications of Seriousness, Urge, Strength, and Pride that the woman in the lead awakens with her arrow. With technical virtuosity, Grützke models the figures using curved arcs and smudges in black, white, and blue on the brown background of his preferred packing paper.Despite its connection to reality, Grützke’s depiction is alienated in every respect—an artificial, staged, and distorted arrangement that gains exemplary significance precisely because of this. The composition is theatrical and has a stage-like effect, reflecting its origins in Grützke’s prelude “Im Watt,” and the figures appear dramatically intensified in their expression. “Behind the irony of meaning, he seeks significance; behind the frozen grimace, an unbroken and uninhibited power.” (E. Schenk zu Schweinsberg, “An Essay on the Visual Language of Johannes Grützke,” in: Holeczek, p. 17). Provenance: Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia Lit.: Johannes Grützke, *Im Watt. Ein Vorspiel*, Hamburg 1978, ill. p. 8 - Please request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is listed in the catalog only in exceptional cases. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.