QR-Code

#270

Seriel Lines, Plates 1-3

Adler, Karl-Heinz ((1927-2018)) | Artist

01:58

Late in life, Karl-Heinz Adler offered an explanation of his Serial Lines – a series of works started in the 1960s.

“My aim was nothing more than to produce a variety of depths by creating canyons running far apart or colliding with each other. [...] There is no secret to it, it is all rather ordinary.”

Adler’s profound and precise exploration of systematic algorithmic shapes and serial production are informed by his interest in science and technology. At the same time, these forms create a magical pictorial space of an unfathomable depth, testing our rational relationship to the world as well as our concept of space and time. As Adler once said, he viewed painting as a way of philosophically observing the world with the help of visual means.

Originally, he trained as a textile designer at a carpet factory. In the post-war period, he studied at art colleges in West Berlin and Dresden and, in 1953, became a member of the GDR’s Verband Bildender Künstler – East Germany’s Association of Visual Artists. But Adler did not really fit into the GDR system. His artistic work was always far removed from the state-approved figurative art or Socialist Realism. Above all, in his exploration of the interplay of colours and forms he became a proponent of Concrete Art, a movement merely tolerated in the GDR. In contrast, his work in architectural art was certainly welcomed. In that area, Adler is best known for the concrete modular system developed with Friedrich Kracht. From the 1970s, this system was produced industrially and integrated into façades in many places in East Germany. The modular forms also provided ornamental concrete surfaces for decorative walls to structure urban public space and enhance its aesthetic value.

 

 

Material & Technique
Graphite on fibreboard
Museum
Galerie Neue Meister
Location & Dating
1989
Inventory number
Inv.-Nr. 2019/02
0:00