Lot 417 D

The Brazilian artist Almir Mavignier belongs to the first of the Zero artists where he was primarily concerned with issues of structure and series. He acquired his defining artistic character through his studies at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm which did not teach painting. Here, unlike Bauhaus, the conventional ties to painting were loosened, and interest was turned towards scientific principles, as would be propogated in particular by Max Bense. Under the influence of artistic personalites such as Josef Albers and Max Bill, Mavignier developed his own idiosyncratic, structural artistic language in which he was occupied with the themes of instability, movement, the dissolution from hierarchical picture compositions as well as viewer participation. His works distinguish themselves through serial elements and monochrome colours which have an effect on the sense of sight and have a great visual stimulus. His intention is principally directed at the perception through the viewer, but he evaluates the visual process and the reflection as creative accomplishment which the recipient has to provide themselves. The work 'Monochrom weiß' from 1981 is an exemplary illustration of Mavignier's endeavour to impart his pictures with a dynamic, spatial power and to draw attention to the relativity of perception.