(born in Freiburg in Breisgau in 1961)
Untitled, 2003, on the reverse signed, dated Katharina Grosse 2003, numbered 2003/7009M and with the measurements, acrylic on aluminum honeycomb board, 95 x 228 x 2 cm

The work is registered in the artist’s archive under the number KG/AW 2003_7009M. We would like to thank the Studio Katharina Grosse, Berlin, for the helpful information.

Provenance:
Galerie Mark Müller, Zurich
Private collection, Zurich - acquired from the above in 2003
Sotheby’s London, 14 April 2020, lot 16
Private collection, Germany - acquired from the above

“Colour is effective and silent”
Katharina Grosse

Katharina Grosse’s oeuvre consists of various forms of paint application including by brush, roller and spray gun. Likewise, Grosse uses different pictorial supports for her works including canvas, paper and aluminum, as well as more unconventional ones such as floors, façades and heaps of earth.

Grosse’s works always consist of lots of color. The present large-format work from 2003 is a large-scale all-over painting on aluminum. The colours were ap plied with a compressor-operated spray gun to the picture support primed in white. Grosse combines bright, spring-like colors with horizontal and vertical structures. The colors are transparent, the underlying layers of paint remain visible, creating the impressi on of spatial depth. The work shows a multi-layered conglomerate of green, blue, yellow and copper to nes. The artist uses various historical techniques in her oeuvre; her works are inspired by fresco painting, plein air painting, abstract expressionism and graffiti.

In this case, Grosse has sprayed the colors onto the flat painting support, as evidenced by the excess paint running vertically along the edges that are left visible. The work captivates us as viewers not least because of its size of 95 x 228 cm. Line by line, Grosse crea tes a network of movement and counter-movement. The lines form a rhythmic structure. The differently colored lines, webs, curves and loops appear like a view through a membrane. The smooth, non-absor bent aluminum panel creates independent, overlap ping layers of color that give the impression of spatial depth. The work captivates the viewer through its in teresting interplay of shapes created by glazing colors, which are layered on top of each other. The combi nation of individual layers of paint is characteristic of Grosse’s works.

Equally characteristic of Katharina Grosse’s works is the extension of the color layers beyond the picture support. The artist’s painting knows no boundaries. None of the lines can be seen in their entirety in this painting; they seem to continue beyond the surface and encourage the viewer to continue the painting imaginatively, to add to it and to complete it mentally.