Gotthard Graubner (1930-2013) is one of the most outstanding contemporary artists. Since the 1960s he has been vigorously investigating the autonomy of colour. With the early ‘colour bodies’ and ‘pillow bodies’ and since 1970 with the object-like ‘colour space bodies’, Graubner has been making a solid dimension beyond the flat image space accessible to colour. ‘My paintings build themselves up with the growth of light and go out with the light; the beginning and end are interchangeable. They don’t describe a condition, they are transition. The action of paint is essential.’ It makes the imaginary colour space experienceable, as it unfolds spatial impact with its own physicality and pulls the spectator into the colour event.

Numerous solo- and group shows in Germany and abroad indicate Graubner’s international reputation. He participated in documenta 4 and 6 and represented Germany at the Biennale Sao Paolo in 1971 and at the Biennale of Venice in 1982. In 1988 he did two large-size works for the residence of the Federal President at Schloss Bellevue in Berlin. From 1969-1995 he was Professor of painting at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and 1976-1998 at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf.