About the work
‘At the centre of Katharina Grosse's group of large-format paintings, created since 2008, is the space-creating character of the paint. Broad bands of colour are laid across the canvas like a grid and are overlaid with new traces of colour in polychrome, whereby the various layers remain transparent. The colour gradient is interrupted at individual points in the painting, revealing the underlying thin layers of paint and hatching. [...]"
Sonja Claser, in: Rendezvous der Maler II - Malerei an der Kunstakademie Düsseldorf von 1986 bis heute, Düsseldorf 2012, S. 34
About the artist
born 1961 in Freiburg im Breisgau
lives and works in Berlin
Katharina Grosse studied at the Kunstakademie Münster and Düsseldorf under Norbert Tadeusz and Gotthard Graubner in 1982 and 1986. She completed her studies in 1990. Initially rooted in Neo-Expressionism, Grosse left the field of figurative painting and turned to colourful compositions that worked with superimpositions. At the end of the 1990s, the artist discovered the colour gun, which opened up completely new possibilities for her. Grosse detached herself from painting. Soon not only the classic canvas but also architecture and objects were used as painting surfaces. Large-scale fabric installations as well as piles of rubble and debris take up entire rooms and create their own cosmos, which appears in harsh contrast to its surroundings. Large-scale works can also be found outside. The painting is conceived beyond the painted object. Since 2007, Grosse has been creating earth works in which she mixes colour and pigments.