Lot 42 D

The abstract, emphatically gestural works by Georges Mathieu are explosions of colour that appear to emerge straight out of the centre of the painting. The energetical composition reaches into the monochrome pictorial space in staccato-like straight lines, arches, and zigzags partly applied extremely impasto, partly thinned out to transparency. The speed with which the artist works remains visible in the finished painting.
Georges Mathieu is one of the most significant representatives of Tachism. This form of Informel emerged in France in the 1940s and is closely related to American Action Painting, which developed at the same time. Based on the „écriture automatique“ of Surrealism, it is about the expression of the subconscious through an intuitive painting process that is not driven by planning or intellectual control. At times, Mathieu celebrated this process confidently in public shows; he attached greater significance to the vigorous, extremely rapid creation of the painting than to the finished work.
The descriptive title of our painting underlines the dramatic effect of the composition which is executed on a reddish-brown ground. It refers to the assassination of the Norman commander Gottfried who ruled over Friesland during the 9th century and was involved in the Viking invasion of the Rhineland. He was killed by Heinrich von Babenberg in 885; Willibert, Archbishop of Cologne, was also involved in the conspiracy.