Artist: SIEGWARD SPROTTE (1913-2004)

Opening: Tuesday, 5.11.2019, 7:00pm
Introduction: Dr. Thomas Gädeke, art historian
Duration: 6.11.2019 – 30.11.2019

Similar to the East Asian ink-painters Siegward Sprotte spontaneously places, lines, colors and shapes on the canvas, without changing anything afterwards. He captures objects beyond their surface perception. His work is a synthesis of outer vision and inner vision. ©A.D.

Sigward Sprottes artistic talent emerged early in his youth in the early 20th century. If one looks back over his eight decades of his wide-ranging life as an artist, then a few constants can be ascertained. In the 1930’s he concentrated mainly on the study of nature. Although he received a western classical education in painting, he began to withdraw from naturalistic depiction from the 1930s onwards. His travels to West India, Venezuela, Colombia, South Europe and the Far East inspired him to paint abstractly. He begins to move outside of the European culture. Even when he’s traveling in southern Europe and capturing the landscapes in a brush technique reminiscent of the Far East. In the 1940s his closeness to north German expressionism, which he linked with his caligraphic way of working, became noticeable. A peculiar tension is visible in the watercolors of the 1980s. The pictures unfold a colorism of elegant and exotic beauty, in daring combinations and more complementary contrasts. His work unfold a colorism of elegant and exotic beauty, in daring combinations and complementary contrasts. The painter uses blue and yellow, orange and yellow, but also green and green, which is difficult even for the practiced colorist, but Sprotte succeeds. Sigward’s later works brought to the viewer the atmosphere of “the spirit of independence between heaven and earth”. ©Xiu-Fang Shi, Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, Christopher Becker