George by Katharina Grosse
2009
Acrylic paint on wall
Patrons: Vicki and Kent Logan
Berlin-based artist Katharina Grosse loves to paint three-dimensional spaces. In the Hamilton Building atrium, she used an industrial-size spray gun to apply layers of color in bold, expressive gestures.
My first gesture is a very light bluish green, and it came in from the right borderline of the wall. I was so convinced I had to paint against the energy line of the wall. I thought I should cross it somehow—because the energy really goes from bottom to top.
You can see Grosse’s four-story painting, George, from every level of the Hamilton Building’s atrium staircase. The artist thanks Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica. George was executed with help from Hans Grosse.
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Photos by Jeff Wells.
Meet the Artist
Katharina Grosse was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany in 1961. She studied painting at both the Kunstakademie Münster and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1982 to1990. Upon graduation, she exhibited in galleries throughout Germany and had her first solo show in 1994 at Altes Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany. In 1997 and 1998 she was a guest professor at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe, and in 1999 she served as artist in residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Since 2000 she has been a professor at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee. She lives and works in Berlin. Grosse has had solo exhibitions at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Renaissance Society, Chicago, the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, the Museu Serralves, in Porto, and most recently at the Temporäre Kunsthalle in Berlin and Neues Museum Nürnberg in 2009. Her works are in the public collections of the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Kunsthaus Zurich, Kunstsammlung NRW in Düsseldorf, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Sammlung Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt. She is represented by Galerie nächst St. Stephan in Vienna and Mark Müller in Zurich. For more, visit www.katharinagrosse.com.
Portrait of Katharina Grosse, 2009, by Foto Wolfgang Stahr, Berlin.
Recent Works
Installation view, Atoms Outside Eggs, 2007. Mixed media. Museu Serralves, Porto. Photo: Rita Burmester, © Katharina Grosse and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2009.
Un altro uomo che a fatto sgocciolare il suo penello, 2008. Galleria Civica de Modena. Photo: Rita Burmester, © Katharina Grosse and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2009.
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