573 - Karl Otto Götz (1914, Aachen – 2017, Niederbreitbach)

Karl Otto Götz (1914, Aachen – 2017, Niederbreitbach) “Spik” Mixed media on canvas. 1960. Approx. 150 x 120 cm. Signed lower left. Signed, dated, and titled again on the reverse of the canvas. Ströher 988; Lissmann WVL-1960-16 (online catalog raisonné). • Significant painting from 1960, dating from the heyday of German Informel • Powerful black-and-white composition brimming with explosive dynamism and gestural energy • Virtuoso squeegee technique as an expression of Götz’s unique interplay of precise planning and spontaneous painterly movement With the development of a novel painting technique in 1952, Karl Otto Götz discovered the form of artistic expression that would decisively shape his subsequent work. The process follows a precise, three-step sequence: First, Götz applies heavily thinned paint to the light-colored canvas, then uses a squeegee to shift it with rapid movements, partially removing it to reveal the underlying areas. Finally, he uses a dry brush to add accents and connect individual areas of color. The entire process often takes only a few seconds and leaves little room for subsequent corrections. The painting “Spik,” created in 1960, illustrates the extraordinary expressive power of this technique. In sweeping, sweeping movements, black swaths of paint stretch across the white background, coalescing into powerful formations and dissolving elsewhere into fine, almost graphic structures. The reduction to black and white heightens the intensity of the composition, in which movement, speed, and painterly energy are conveyed directly. As spontaneous as the act of painting may appear, it is by no means left to chance alone. Götz carefully prepares his compositions in numerous studies and gouaches, sometimes over an extended period of time. Only at the decisive moment of execution does he allow room for the inherent momentum of the liquid paint and the unpredictable effects of the squeegee. From this interplay of planning and chance, control and letting go, a style of painting emerges that is characterized by remarkable freedom and, at the same time, great formal precision. With works such as “Spik,” Karl Otto Götz asserts his outstanding position within the German Informel movement. His painting transforms the creative process itself into the actual pictorial event and lends gestural abstraction an immediacy that remains impressive to this day. Exhibition: XII Premio Lissone, Palazzo del Mobile, Lissone 1961, No. 13, label on the back of the stretcher; Galleria l’attico, Rome 1961 and 1963, labels on the back of the canvas and on the stretcher, respectively; Galerie Hans Strelow, Düsseldorf 2010, label on the back of the stretcher; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K20/K21, Düsseldorf (on loan). Provenance: Galleria l’attico, Rome 1960; Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia; Lempertz, Cologne, Dec. 3, 2004, Lot 222; Van Ham, Cologne, Dec. 3, 2009, Lot 236; Galerie Strelow, Düsseldorf, 2009; Hans Strelow Collection, Düsseldorf; Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia. Taxation: subject to margin scheme (VAT: Margin Scheme).