GÜNTHER FÖRG

Gunther Förg always expressed a complicated and profound relationship to architecture through his work, exploring the connections between abstraction, space, and architecture.

He drew on the formal vocabulary of modernism, both in painting and architecture. His abstract, often monochromatic works were sometimes structured by geometrical lines and blocks of colour recalling the principles of order and simplicity associated with architectural movements such as Bauhaus or International Style.

As such, there could be no better setting to show his work than Maison La Roche, designed and built in the early 1920s by Le Corbusier. The house is named after its patron and owner, Raoul La Roche, a banker and collector of cubist and modern art. His collection, most of which was selected by Le Corbusier and the painter Amédée Ozenfant, included paintings by artists such as Juan Gris, Picasso, and Fernand Léger.

The connection between Gunther Förg’s paintings and Le Corbusier’s architectural polychromy lies most of all in their shared approach to colour, their use of monochrome, and their way of using colour to structure the space and interact with the architecture.— Extract from press release written by Nicolas Trembley, art critic & curator