Lot 71 D

In an interview with Helmut Middendorf, Walter Grasskamp asked about his choice of colour and his preference for ultramarine, which the artist explained as follows:
“For me, it was only positively loaded; I always thought Yves Klein was great and in the course of painting a picture, particular palettes become crystallised for every painter, certain colours that you prefer to use because you believe that is the best way to realise your ideas. When I found the colour, it was incredibly difficult to paint with. For the moment you take the colour pure, as Yves Klein did, it is difficult to paint with, without it falling off the picture. In relation to distemper and the pigment, I then noticed that it works with the distemper - that's when I got to grips with it […] When you see this amazingly intensive ultramarine blue in original, it takes on something so succumbing, such a fascination where you peer into it, that you find yourself being drawn into the picture, more than with any other colour.” (Helmut Middendorf, quoted from: Walter Grasskamp im Interview mit Helmut Middendorf, in: Kerber Verlag (ed.), Helmut Middendorf, Berlin, Die 80er und frühe Bilder, Bielefeld 2015, p. 20)