About the work

Gotthard Graubner’s works on paper reveal a clear link with the so-called Kissenbildern (cushion paintings) of the artist. The cushions of these works, saturated with paint, expand not only as an optical illusion, but instead in a real and sculptural way into the space. The psychological effect of colour and light is the central theme of his work: “His paintings are mirrors of light. The light is thrown back from the stretched skin of the paintings, it gets under the skin, awakens the colours, satiates itself on them, fills the cavities and allows the pulse of the colours to work their way outward through the skin." (1967)

This watercolour lives from the action and blending of the colours: the green arises from the interaction of the transparent yellow and blue colour; a red can be vaguely perceived in the violet. Everything is permeated by an extremely delicate black that becomes more emphatic toward the bottom and conveys a sense of heaviness. The colours are not unequivocal, are nebulous. They permeate one another, mix with one another and yet remain themselves. Despite all this freedom, the sheet is a masterfully designed whole, a colour space universe.