Lot 72 D

'After the first splodges have soiled the canvas and erased its character of cool untouchability, there is already something there, an interplay between approach and knowledge, sensation and deliberation. If a third or fourth splodge is added, the innocence is lost. At that point, I am in a process to which I have to subordinate myself, so to speak, my will becomes less important. The necessity to create something is stronger than any intentions!' The work process that has now taken hold of him is not exclusively subject to his own will, or borne solely by intellectual decisions, but takes place according to its own laws. 'The colours take over the shapes, the symbols demand colour - by letting myself get carried away, I achieve my painting.' In this way Schumacher experiences the process of composition, in which, as an artist, he allows the process of creation to happen almost passively. 'This is how I paint a shape, adding a line, opposing a movement with a counter-movement, scratching it out, letting the canvas shine through in places, adding an impasto area here, according to how I feel and think, without actually being able to explain why.' The composition arises from the interaction of lines and colours, of symbols and shapes.' (Ernst-Gerhard Güse (ed.), Emil Schumacher, Das Erlebnis des Unbekannten, Ostfildern 2012, p.75).