Page 51 - Studio International - March 1965

(although the danger of stagnation is naturally inherent
in this kind of art and-as the case of Soulages shows­
it is always present as a sword of Damocles). Just like
these painters. Sonderborg has independently evolved
his own form of expression. The new conception of
terse action and concentrated movement was at that
time. so to speak. 'in the air'. In some of Hartung's
2 paintings of the period 1947 /48 it was already present
3 in embryo, and Jackson Pollock was at the same time

working on the problem with his 'dripping technique·.
trying to convert and transmit into spontaneous painting
the impulses of pure motion. But at that time his
pictures were unknown in Germany and his 'informal'
methods have little to do with Sonderborg·s conception
of painting. There is no question at all of Sonderborg
having plagiarized in any of the cases mentioned. His
conception of painting springs from the same roots as
does that of Hartung. They reach far back into an
extremely graphic tradition in painting that has been
dominant in Germany since the late Gothic period. Only
when he had found his personal style, did Sonderborg
visit Paris in 1953-for the first time. There he studied
the many-sided possibilities of a new abstract expres­
sionism. He also studied for a long time in the studio of
the graphic master Stanley W. Hayter, in order to perfect
his technique. Sonderborg does not owe his gift, but
rather the painterly perfection of his hitherto pre-
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