About the work
Whether larkspur, poppy, roses, foxglove, lupins, marguerites or pansies - there is no flower, no blossom in the garden or field that did not attract the attention of the painter Siegward Sprotte. His works include floral still lifes of radiantly colourful, opulent floral mosaics in oil on canvas extending to leaves in gouache or watercolours, the specialness of which lies in reduction and scarcity, in a limitation to only a few, sparingly used pictorial elements.
Here it is three bowl-shaped, bright orange-red poppy flowers on delicate stems with feathery leaves. The gouache from 1988 is distinguished by a harmonious equilibrium of pictorial background and motif, a flat treatment of the forms and a dispensing with the highly detailed formulation of the subject represented. It not only makes Sprotte’s knowledge of Asian ink painting evident, the aesthetic of emptiness of which always stimulated and inspired the artist, but also documents the self-confident integration of its stylistic means into his own painting.
Text authored and provided by Dr. Doris Hansmann, Art historian
Studies of art history, theater, film and television, English and Romance Languages at the University of Cologne, doctorated in 1994. Research assistant at the Art Museum Düsseldorf. Lecturer and project manager at Wienand Verlag, Cologne. Freelance work as an author, editor and book producer for publishers and museums in Germany and abroad. From 2011 chief editor at Wienand Verlag, from 2019 to 2021 senior editor at DCV, Dr. Cantz’sche Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin. Numerous publications on the art of the 20th and 21st centuries.
