Lothar Guderian

Lothar Guderian (born in 1939) sees himself as part of the the “art concret” tradition. This movement, started by the Dutch painter Theo van Doesburg in 1917, advocated for a new clarity in composition and material. It is precisely these characteristics that can be found in Guderian’s compositions. The artist always takes a thick piece of paper as his starting point, cutting it up into slender strips and fragments. He puts these together in a collage with corners and verves made up of several layers of paper on top of a white background. The effect and the movement of light and shadow at first reminds the observer of ZERO artists, but upon closer inspection its connection to “concrete art” and artists like August Gaul and Thomas Lenk becomes clear.

Despite the term concrete, though, Guderian’s works are never cold or devoid of room for interpretation. To mark the publication of his autobiography, Lothar Guderian has designed three series of 20 unique collages each. These collages illustrate his eventful life, his “Lebenslinien”  (“Life Lines”) in the form of “square corners” (Series A), “curves” (Series B), and “chamfers” (Series C), true masterpieces of book art—something for more than just bibliophiles!

“In an age in which we are flooded with visual stimuli - even to the point of being aggressively besieged by them - I would like to invite you to come on a new visual journey.” – Lothar Guderian

Doch trotz des Begriffs des Konkreten sind Guderians Werke niemals emotionslos oder frei jeglicher Interpretationsmöglichkeit. Anlässlich seiner erschienen Biografie fertigte der Künstler drei Serien von jeweils 20 Unikaten an, die sein bewegtes Leben, seine „Lebenslinien“ in Form von „rechten Winkeln“ (Serie A), „Bögen“ (Serie B) und „Schrägen“ (Serie C) illustrieren, wahre Meisterwerke der Buchkunst und nicht nur für Bibliophile eine echte Neuentdeckung!

„In an age in which we are flooded with visual stimuli - even to the point of being aggressively besieged by them - I would like to invite you to come on a new visual journey.“ - Lothar Guderian