Karl Otto Götz, born in 1914 in Aachen and one of the most important protagonists of German informal painting, has not confined himself to just one artistic genre throughout the course of his life. In addition to painting, he has also devoted himself to graphic art, sculpture, photography and also to the medium of painting and poetry. The artist’s work shows a constant joy of discovery in displacing the classical principle of form. The spontaneity and speed of the creative process are reflected in the multifaceted variations of dynamic spirals in his brushwork and crystalline squeegee structures. In accordance with Götz’s artistic guiding principle, the works displayed in this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue, including hitherto unknown works spanning his entire creative phase, illustrate the enormous spectrum that the artist has covered in exploring the inexhaustible well of abstract possibilities to constantly create something new.

Biography

1914 born in Aachen

about 1933 first abstract work

1948–1953 publisher of the magazine “Meta”

1952 exhibition “Quadriga” with Otto Greis, Heinz Kreutz and Bernard Schultz,

first informal paintings

1959 participation at documenta II

1959–1979 professorship at Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

1995–2001 ceramic work

lives and works in Wolfenacker/Westerwald