Lot 607 D

Based on the basic principle of abstract painting in Constructivism, Günther Fruhtrunk develops his dynamic design vocabulary composed of manifold variations of intensively coloured stripes. In the 1960s, his characteristic geometrisations of colour and shape are defined by bands of colour crossing the picture plane horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. In Centre d'Ènergie, the blue stripes are rhythmically structured in varying dilation in front of the red background and are partially flanked by narrow stripes subtly accentuating the rhythm. “The composition begins to vibrate due to these luminous, intensive 'margins'. The planes of colour seem to abandon the spatially defined, immediate dimensionality and to float in barely tangible spatial depth.” The compositional conception “of a well-balanced picture expanding outwards” also becomes apparent in the title. Thus, in 1964, Centre d'Ènergie with its dynamic picture plane manifests a central pictorial theme in Günther Fruhtrunks oeuvre. “It is solely about expansion by intensifying the graphic construction (dark stripes in front of a pale ground or vice versa, pale stripes in front of dark ones) whereby it is the illumination of the margins alone […] that causes the dark surfaces to vibrate and thus underlines the detachment from the ground.” (Helmut Friedel, Zu den Bilder von Günter Fruhtrunk, Rote Vibration, in: Ina Prinz (ed.), Günther Fruhtrunk im Arithmeum, exhib.cat. Bonn 2002, p.3)