Page 50 - Studio International - March 1965

Sonderborg German action painter

by Hanns Theodor Flemming
1
Next to Kricke. Sonderborg (almost the same age-he
was born in 1923) is one of the few German artists of
his generation who have achieved international recog­
nition. An early aliveness to the contemporary mood
was apparent in his development of a specific variant of
'action painting', in which the speed of movement,
furious tempo and exquisitely held explosion of the act
are decisive, and in which a formal and quite masterly
expression is the final result of a speed of execution that
can only be compared to that of a supersonic rocket.
Sonderborg appeals to our basic compulsion towards
energy and speed-our desire to explore space.
Although he can be counted among the action painters
and psychic delineators of our times and has added his
own contribution to the many achievements of 'in­
formal art', he has always avoided the imprecision and
formlessness to which most of his fellow informalists
have succumbed. He is admittedly an impulsive painter,
yet his main concern is always 'form'. His is the tempo
of the age: he is possessed by the true daemon of
formal creativity.
Fourteen years have passed since Kurt Hoffman from
Hamburg (he calls himself 'Sonderborg' after his
Danish birthplace) made his 'artistic breakthrough'. If
one were to put any faith in the legends he has spread
about himself, this was a magical and sudden event that
took place during a short stay on Stromboli in 1951.
The abstract landscape of this bleak volcanic island
with its grey rocks, black beach and persistent erup­
tions seemed sympathetic to his own restless tempera­
ment and artistic sensitivity; it brought his sense of
vibration-of rhythm-to painterly fruition. After a long
period of indecisive searching that resulted in no par­
ticular solution to his problems, Sonderborg was now
suddenly granted self-knowledge and shown the way
to success.
In Autumn 1952 Sonderborg exhibited for the first
time when he put on show the paintings inspired by his
experience on Stromboli. The pictures he exhibited
then in Hamburg already possessed all the essential
characteristics that are still to be noticed in Sonder­
borg's work: tempo, action, crystallization of motion
and the simultaneous immobilization of time in the
artifact. On that occasion I was privileged to publish in
Die Welt and in the Neue Zeitung the first critical
articles to appear in connexion with Sonderborg's
work. 'Kurt H. Sonderborg', I wrote in the Neue
Zeitung for 12 December, 1952, 'exhibits the most
emphatic and most original creative works of this
group. He is mostly content to work in tempera-black
tempera that he applies like Indian ink. His ecstatic
brushwork seems to have preserved something of the
tempest and surf of the North Sea coast. His creations
are full of tension and mystery, like the early improvisa­
tions of Kandinsky or the cosmic allegories of Fritz
Winter. In Panarea and Spill the convolutions and
1 splashes of his tracery criss-cross and leap across the
6.V/11.64
7 9h 02-7 9h 40 paper like the effects of a dumb explosion. Sonderborg
011 Egg Tempera. 1964 uses titles in which fragmentary memories of journeys
110 x 70 cm.
Galerie Karl Fl,nker. Pans made and tatters of words heard and used occur in
2
Nauusch magical symbiosis. I shall follow his future progress
77.Vlll.52 with interest'.
Egg Tempera and Ink
50 X 70 cm. Like so many painters of today, Sonderborg has
Walraff-Richartz Museum. Cologne systematically built upon and further developed the gift
3
7 9.V/1.55 allowed him. Like Hartung, Soulages, Mathieu, Polia­
76.03-78.32 h koff and others he belongs among the most valuable
Oil Egg Tempera
52 x 67 cm. 'specialists' of our time, who have made an impression,
Collection. Dr. C. Hasl,nde.
Dusseldorf without as yet showing any signs of stagnation
130