GÜNTHER FÖRG ARBEITEN AUF PAPIER / WORKS ON PAPER / OEUVRES SUR PAPIER: 1975 - 2009

Now open in Hauser & Wirth , Zurich, Limmatstrasse: "Günther Förg Arbeiten auf Papier / Works on Paper / Oeuvres sur Papier: 1975 – 2009".

September 27 – December 20, 2024

Förg’s works on paper were an integral part of his multidisciplinary practice (which comprised drawing, painting, photography and sculpture) and ran parallel to his works on canvas. Executed in a variety of materials, from watercolor, acrylic and oil to charcoal, chalk and ink, these creations are considered works in their own right; instead of using them as preparatory sketches for paintings, the artist would often be inspired to paint and draw on paper after experimenting with his large-scale canvases.

The exhibition includes well-known series, including his Grid, Color Field, Grey and Spot works, alongside lesser-known pieces, such as early works on paper from his studies in Munich, such as early works on paper from his studies in Munich or later series such as Mostly Landscapes.

With many shown together for the first time, the exhibition positions Förg as a daring conceptualist who both incorporated and critiqued tropes of modernism, while celebrating his distinctively sensuous approach to gestural abstraction. His works on paper offer an insight into the way in which Förg engaged with these concerns by ceaselessly transforming his use of color, form and composition to push the boundaries of his own image making. Sidestepping easy categorization, he candidly appropriated and re-imagined canonical art historical references, such as the work of Blinky Palermo, Paul Klee, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, Edvard Munch and others.

Within these works on paper, Förg transformed the previous lattice structures from his series of Grid paintings into rhythmic, gestural marks that appear to float across his paper, doing away with any previous sense of order. In these works, the brushstroke itself becomes the main protagonist, representing an ultimate return to expressive painting, indicating a completion of sorts—a full-circle arrival at painting as a synthesis of experimentation, rooted in art history.