Page 58 - Studio Interantional - May 1967

Far left Werner Reichold Sculpture 64 1964
steel 57 ⅛ x 15 ¾ in.
Galerie Brusberg, Hanover

Left Paul Wunderlich Pythagoras 1966
coloured lithography 253- x 191 in.
Galerie Brusberg, Hanover
Below centre Heinz Mack at the opening of his
exhibition in the (op)-art Galerie, Esslingen
(In the background: one of his mirror-walls)
Below Willi Muller-Brittnau Bild no. 66/66 1966
oil on linen 53⅛ x 41⅜ in.
Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich

surrealism widely accepted in North Germany. realist and abstract expressionism who have more importance in Professor Max Bense of Stuttgart.
Using the resources of the controlled break-up of than regional significance... were it not for the Just outside Stuttgart, in the little town of Esslin-
materials—colour-flow, dripping, monotype—Wun- chorus of admirers who for years have honoured gen, an (OP)-ART GALERIE has been founded which
derlich composes surrealistic canvases which are Ernst Wilhelm Nay as the German master of makes an international effort on behalf of this
often based on literary themes. He does not always abstract expressionism. However, critics visiting regional interest. The gallery's exhibition of work
avoid the risk of caricaturing his subject and his the Nay retrospective in Stuttgart — recently on by the 42-year-old Almir Mavignier must have
refined technique often make for lapses into easy at the Mannheim Kunsthalle —must have wondered been one of the most important showings of con-
effects which appeal to a sugary haut gout. In just what is the real basis for Nay's worldwide re- crete art in Germany. With a tenacity reminiscent
general, however, he is clearly influenced in his putation, unless it lies in the imposing scale of his of his Ulm guide, Joseph Albers, Mavignier has
treatment of his chosen medium by German works and the bright colours of his discs, circles and been composing dots into screen patterns for more
expressionism, to the same extent as Schultze, frog-eye symbols. Nay's paintings are thrown on to than ten years; but in most cases it is difficult to
Szymanski or Reichold, artists from the Galerie the canvas with cheerful non-chalance—but surely say whether more importance attaches to the
Brusberg who follow quite different trends: this cannot be German art's highest achievement accumulations of pigment or to the vibratory effect
injured shapes and free associations with reality since the last war? One suspects that Nay is somehow of the dot pattern. Irritating irregularities and
often cut right through the styles and remind one an alibi for the history of German art : an artist al- sudden aggressive details reveal how far he is still
of that great German tradition. The steel structures ready active in the expressionist tradition before the marked by his South American origins, despite his
of Werner Reichold (born 1925), while abstract war, and then, when Tachism became fashionable European training. An impulsive temperament
in conception, in particular summon up a broad in the Ruhr area in the early fifties, trying his hand lies behind the mysterious play of colours.
range of associations. Gashed and balefully gleam- again at an energetic, expressive style. But can Uli Pohl, who represented (op)-art Galerie's direc-
ing, these works were in the group exhibition `Wege anyone really believe that a naive pleasure in bright tion at the Dortmund spring exhibition, `Wege
1967' at Dortmund—strange blossoms on stalks colours coupled with Teutonic vigour is the only 1967', belongs more to the functional objectivity
which seem far too thin to carry their defiant original contribution to German art since 1945 ? of the Ulm Produktform'. The 32-year-old artist
load. In the South the Ulm Hochscule für Gestaltung uses the expressive value of mechanical grinding
Galerie Brusberg might well claim to have gathered has for several years promoted a rational trend in marks to give to plates of acrylic glass an extremely
around it all the German representatives of sur- art which has found a theoretician of international active play of light. Heinz Mack, whose work was
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