Helmut Bischof

Painting with wax on paper, Helmut Bischof designs works that are rich in color.  In the wake of World War Two, Bischof’s hometown of Wesel, Germany, was the type of dreary that made imagination and a spirit of survival necessities.  Oppressed by bleak grays and browns, Bischof yearned for colors in both a physical reality and a metaphorical sense and therefore turned to painting.  When most put on masks to hide their suffering, Bischof chose to live life to the fullest and paint brightly and powerfully.

The result is a body of artwork that is vibrant not just for its colors but for its depth of shapes.  Long, thick black spirals swoop through the paintings.  Staccato lines at varying angles crash into a cacophony of color.  Individualized boxes within the framework of a rectangular piece of paper emphasize form yet are couched by a velvety, amorphous background.  Wildly conceptual, the images evoke feeling yet allow the viewer to interpret their meanings.