He is one of he most prominent protagonists of the German post-war abstraction movement “informel”: Fred Thieler. Born in Königsberg (East Prussia, now Russia) in 1916, he became one of the most important painters of the Informel group, which championed both expressive and lyrical abstraction in post-War Germany. Persecuted by the Nazis (his mother was Jewish), he enrolled at Hein König’s private art school in Munich, Germany. After WWII he studied from 1946 – 1950 at the Munich Art Academy in Karl Caspar’s class, where he began to paint his first abstract pictures. Thieler became a member of the artist group ZEN 49, founded in 1949. Other members included Willi Baumeister, Rupprecht Geiger, K.R.H. Sonderborg and Fritz Winter. From 1959 – 1981, he was professor of painting at the Art Academy in Berlin. Fred Thieler was shown in 1959 and 1964 at Documenta II and III in Kassel. Since 1992, the Berlinische Galerie (Berlin’s State Museum) has awarded the Fred Thieler prize for painting, endowed by the artist himself. He died in Berlin in 1999.

Thieler’s forms are abstract and his colours intense. Their dialogue dominates his paintings. Also, his works do not follow a consequent, systematic stylistic pattern, just like “informel” painting in general. His early works, created well into the 1940’s, were figurative and created traditionally, using brushes. The subject matter is clearly discernible: melancholy scenes from everyday life, sometimes rendered in a more serene way and demonstrating an element of hope.

B.I./4./58, screen printing ink on paper and wood, 100 x 65 cm

orange-red+gelb P/65, 1965, mixed media on paper, 94 x 66,5 cm

From the 1950’s on, Thieler worked in a completely different manner. He took the canvas off the easel, laid it down horizontally on the floor, and – which was still deemed provocative in the 1950’s – poured, dripped and sloshed the colours onto it from cans or buckets. This way of painting bears some resemblance to Jackson Pollock, but they didn’t know about each other at that time. In this way, he created works that do not depict anything figurative; rather, they impress by their coincidental and unforeseeable arrangement of colours, appeal to the emotions, radiant energy and dynamism.

In the beginning, his works seemed to be under the rule of dark, gloomy colours dominated by black or blackish tones. Beginning in the 60’s, he used more blue and red, so that it seemed that his works gained more luminosity as his œuvre developed. The artists also took up collage techniques, influencing the free flow of his colours. Although Thieler uses new hues of violet, green or orange in his later paintings, the classic colours blue, red, white and black still dominate his overall work.

The artist states, “To be a painter means, to me, to lead the existence of a contemporary that spends most of the time of his life trying to depict the impulses governing his life, like depression, intuition, and schemes, as well as reactions to singular experiences or series of them in painting, or win those in the process.” (1)

Untitled, 1969, mixed media on canvas, 135 x 150 cm

Untitled, um 1972, artificial resin dispersion on canvas, 180 x 135 cm

This is the underlying structure of his abstract formulae, based on interaction, albeit not with the public.

To have introduced the eruptive force of colour into art as a self-dependent element is one of Thieler’s greatest achievements; he saw the production of images as an interaction between the painter and his materials. Thus, he created unpredictable images that followed only their inner laws and have the task to evoke feelings in the beholder.

Mit rotem Zentrum, 1986, mixed media on canvas, 180 x 220 cm

Mit zartem Blau, 1992, mixed media on canvas, Collage, 200 x 280 cm

Samuelis Baumgarte Gallery presented a Thieler retrospective from October 10th to November 20th 2010, comprising about 50 works by the artist. The show was accompanied by a catalogue. We honoured his 95th birthday with a special show at Art Cologne 2011.

(1) See www.fred-thieler.de

Exhibitions:

Fred Thieler - Retrospective

Focus on the artist on the occasion of his 95. Birthday at ART COLOGNE 2011