Art Informel, Beuys And Zero : Germany

Parallel to French Tachism, a style of art evolved in the Federal Republic of Germany immediately after World War II under the influence of Surrealism, the “Ecole de Paris” and American Abstract Expressionism, a style of art which - miles away from figurative painting or even geometric abstraction - had as its overarching characteristic an abstract, gesticular and semiautomatic style of painting which is never completely uncontrolled and follows the principle of planned coincidence. Two key exhibitions drew attention to the significance of the German Art Informel: “Couleur Vivante” in the Wiesbaden Museum in 1957 and “Eine neue Richtung der Malerei” in the Mannheim Fine Arts Museum in 1957/58.

The essence of this new style is the presentation of “inner landscapes”, in other words, complex and complicated pictorial systems with structures that condense to form mysterious characters, symbols and organisms. The great variety of the German Art Informel is manifest in the works of artists who have long since become internationally renowned: Karl Otto Gotz, Bernard Schultze, Fred Thieler, Gerhard Hoehme, Karl Friedrich Dahmen, Emil Schumacher, Peter Briining and K.R.H. Sonderborg.