Skarstedt Upper East Side announces an exhibition of work by the late German artist Günther Förg, at their uptown gallery this February. This exhibition—remarkably only the third time Förg’s work has been shown in the United States in nearly two decades— will showcase 9 of the artist’s signature paintings on lead, dating from 1986-1990. Günther Förg: Lead Paintings will be on view at Skarstedt (20 E. 79th Street) from February 19 through April 11, 2015.

Throughout his career, Förg co-opted various uncommon materials as painting supports— the most notable of which was lead. Using imagery born of abstract painting and minimalism, Förg built upon the work of predecessors such as Blinky Palermo and allowed the material to become his vehicle for expression. Förg said of these works, “I like very much the qualities of lead – the surface, the heaviness… I like to react on things, with the normal canvas you often have to kill the ground, give it something to react against. With the metals you already have something - its scratches, scrapes.” (“Günther Förg: In Conversation”, Talking Paintings; Dialogues with Twelve Contemporary Abstract Painters, 2002, 77. )

To create these paintings, Förg wrapped lead sheets over wood, then painted each surface with acrylic. The large-scale yet minimal compositions visibly reference American color field painters such as Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. A number of works in the exhibition feature variations of Newman’s horizontal ‘zips’. It’s important to note that Förg did not share the movement’s metaphysical ambitions, but instead intended his Lead Paintings as a visual homage to color field abstraction. The series’ reductive compositions exist as Förg intended: fields of experimentation in painting.

The uneven lead surfaces introduce tension between the flatness of the picture plane and the dimensionality of Förg’s brushstrokes. With each composition layered over a matte lead base, the success of the Lead Paintings relies upon variations in pressure applied to the brush. These variances, as well as the opaque fast-drying nature of acrylic, give prominence to color density and weight. Absorbing nothing, the lead surfaces reveal brushwork both laconic and brisk.

Günther Förg (1952 – 2013) was an extraordinarily versatile painter, photographer, graphic artist, and sculptor. He was a prominent member of an influential generation of German artists; working alongside peers such as Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen to break down the previous generation’s established rules of abstraction.

Förg’s work has been shown in important institutions such as the Fondation Beyeler, Basel; Kunstmuseum Basel; Langen Foundation, Neuss; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía/Palacio de Velázquez, Madrid; Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach; and SFMOMA, San Francisco.

His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, François Pinault Foundation, Venice, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Broad Contemporary Art Museum, Santa Monica; Tate Modern, London; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles; Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Castello di Rivoli, Turin; and Kunstmuseum Basel.

All images: Günther Förg, installation views at Skarstedt, New York © Estate of Günther Förg. Courtesy Skarstedt, New York