Rolf Gith

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Portrait of the painter Rolf Gith in his studio
Rolf Gith (2014)

Rolf Gith (born May 11, 1950 in Hamburg ) is a German painter , draftsman and designer .

Career

While still at school, Rolf Gith took private drawing and painting lessons from Arie Goral and Eduard Hopf . From 1968 to 1974 he studied painting with Hans Thiemann and Rudolf Hausner at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg as well as visual communication with Hans Michel , which he graduated in 1971. In the same year Gith received the German National Academic Foundation for Painting, combined with study visits to Florence and Rome. Since 1974 Gith has been working as a painter, draftsman and designer, including in Hamburg for NDR television in the educational and course program. In 1981 Gith moved to Wiesbaden and from 1981 to 2013 worked as a media designer for the ZDF in Mainz. From 2003 to May 31, 2013, he was last responsible for image composition and design as the division manager. In the period from 1990 and 2001 he also had a teaching position at the Mainz University of Applied Sciences , lectured at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts and was a visiting professor at the Bremen University of the Arts . Gith is a member of the Künstleronderbund in Germany , an association of realistically working artists. With the object representations he has made since 1996, he is one of the contemporary painters who are revitalizing the still life genre in art. Rolf Gith lives in Wiesbaden. His work is in private and public ownership.

Work and motifs

After graduating, Gith first painted life-size nudes with the series title "Susanne". In these pictures, Gith uses the old master's layering technique for the first time, in which the paint is applied several times on top of each other in thin, translucent layers and in which the desired depth of color is only created through the overlapping paint applications. The series was shown in 1976 in the gallery in Flottbek (catalog) and in 1977 in the Kunstkreis Hameln. Two works were shown as part of the Young West Art Prize under the title “Act 75” in the Städtische Kunsthalle Recklinghausen (catalog) and in the Städtische Galerie Oberhausen.

From 1977 to 1981 he created smaller works in tempera and oil on linen in the format 72 × 70 cm. These works describe a personal mythology that Gith arranged on a stick, such as: B. Children, everyday and time staff. The pictures were shown in 1979 in the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (e.g. catalog “Forum Junge Kunst”, 1979 and catalog “Maler in Hamburg”, 1982). Gith symbolically processes personal experiences and topics here.

After this cycle, Gith turned to drawing. From 1981 he drew portraits of people around him, but also numerous self-portraits. These delicately worked out physiognomies were exhibited in 1984 at the Kunsthaus Hamburg as part of the exhibition “Hans Thiemann and his students” (catalog) and in 1991 in the Burggrafiat Alzey. Gith expanded his range of topics with a phase from realistic to free drawings, for which Gith made mystical sculptures that he used as the basic motif in his drawings. In 1994 the catalog for these drawings and sculptures was published.

In 1996 Gith started a new creative period, whereby he now concentrated entirely on painting itself. The central themes of his work are now light and color in painting. By 2008, the first block of works entitled “message of light and color” will consist of nine works in the format 150 × 150 cm, painted in egg tempera and resin oil on canvas. For this purpose, Gith arranges small groups of objects, which he then greatly enlarges, as blow-up, onto the canvas. In this way, Gith painterly penetrates the innermost objects and increases the sensual experience of things. The props of the pictures, such as wax, fur or skull, emerge from their profane role and acquire a magical meaning. Gith realizes this painting again using an elaborate old master layer technique, as only essential features for Gith's painting, such as transparencies or color depths , can be represented. The catalog for the work block “message of light and color” was published in early 2010. Some works were shown for the first time in 2012 at the Kunsthaus Wiesbaden.

In the years 2009 to 2013 Gith painted the second block of works with the title “sign of light”. While the earlier pictures seemed auratic, almost symbolically charged, this series marks a new phase in Gith's work. The objects appear more simple and everyday, at the same time flooded and flooded with light. The verism , which at first glance appears almost photographic , is also retained here, but deliberately alienated by the blow-up process, in that things seem to dissolve into strips of light and color fields on closer inspection. Parts of the work block were presented for the first time in 2014 in the Schmalfuss Gallery in Marburg. The catalog for the “sign of light” series of works, published in 2014, documents this cycle.

In 2015, the Museum Modern Art Hünfeld showed a total of eleven works from both work blocks.

From 2013 to 2016 Gith worked on the third work block under the title "low light" in the sense of residual light. Here Gith is concerned with the dissolution of objects in the dark and with the question of where color begins in the side light of plasticity . The identification of the things in the picture becomes more difficult, is in some cases even impossible - a deliberate effect that highlights the experimental character of the series. The last three paintings of the six-part work block form a closed series within the cycle in which Rolf Gith expands the themes of his painting to include historical and biographical aspects. In these works, the painter addresses his family history, with individual objects and motifs representing the decisive stages in life and character traits of the "portrayed" people. In the “residual light” Gith calls up individual memories and at the same time reflects the foundations of his painting in a new way. The complete block of works was shown in 2016 at the KunstKontor gallery in Wiesbaden. A catalog has been published for the exhibition.

At the end of 2016, Gith will begin the fourth work block "message of silence". Here the painter is concerned with the "silence of things" in an extreme close-up view. This effect is dramatically enhanced by the new large format of 200 × 200 cm. Fantastic, almost abstract-looking picture compositions emerge on the canvas for the viewer from real objects. Glass and water play a central role in this series. In their transparencies, the banal objects, such as B. blossoms, break, distort or reflect. A microcosm of the visible. A work from this work block "Waterbird" was shown for the first time in 2017 in the Galerie Schmalfuß, Berlin, alongside earlier works. The first six works were presented in October / November 2018 in the Galerie Kunstkontor, Wiesbaden. Including three works in the format 200 × 200 cm for the first time.

Gith 2019 begins with the fifth work block "no black". In addition to the existing blow-up process, the ban on the color "black" is newly introduced as a central element with the result of bright and intense colors. The objects enter the scene ascetically, almost lonely. The supporting base forms the background for the colored surface, which relates to the color of the object. A new form of color field painting, as Gith applies the color here, as with the objects, in glazed layers of paint, thus also enabling color depths here. This creates a correspondence of different levels between the real object and the abstract color surface. This gives diametrical artistic elements a common structure.

In 2020, the Marburg Art Museum is showing an extensive retrospective entitled “Rolf Gith - message of painting” with works from the past 24 years. The exhibition shows examples of pictures from the five work blocks that have been realized so far. This selection gives a good impression of the technical brilliance and conceptual importance of the painterly work.

Important exhibitions

  • 1974 Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg, painter in Hamburg 3 (catalog)
  • 1974 International Cultural Center, Antwerp
  • 1974 Academie des Beaux Arts, Gent, New Realists from Hamburg (catalog)
  • 1975 Municipal Art Gallery, Recklinghausen
  • 1975 Städtische Galerie, Oberhausen , Art Prize Young West - Act 75 (catalog)
  • 1976 Gallery in Flottbek, Hamburg (catalog)
  • 1977 Art Circle Hameln
  • 1977 Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg, realists in Hamburg
  • 1977 Abbot Palace Oliva, Danzig, Realists in Hamburg (catalog)
  • 1977–78 touring exhibition through the USA Realist in Hamburg (catalog)
  • 1979 Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Young Art Forum '79 (catalog)
  • 1980 Kunsthaus Hamburg , The secret of the world is the visible
  • 1981 Gallery Spectrum, Antwerp
  • 1984 Kunsthaus Hamburg , Hans Thiemann and his students (catalog)
  • 1991 Gallery in Burggrafiat, Alzey
  • 2004 Galerie Cornelissen, Wiesbaden
  • 2012 Kunsthaus Wiesbaden
  • 2014 Galerie Schmalfuss, Marburg, state of affairs
  • 2015 Museum Modern Art Hünfeld , TOP4
  • 2016 Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur, Berlin, WASSER - 6th Realism Biennale (2016) (catalog)
  • 2016 Galerie KunstKontor, Wiesbaden, low light (catalog)
  • 2017 Galerie Schmalfuss, Berlin, STILL ALIVE - still life painting
  • 2018 Galerie KunstKontor, Wiesbaden, message of silence
  • 2019 art fair ARTe, Wiesbaden (catalog)
  • 2019 KUNSTBEZIRK Stuttgart, "foreign-familiar", Künstleronderbund in Deutschland 1990 eV (catalog)
  • 2020 Kunstmuseum Marburg Rolf Gith - message of painting , Marburg

literature

  • "Painter in Hamburg 3", Heydorn, Volker Detlef, Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1974, pp. 90 and 124, ISBN 3-7672-0290-5
  • “Art Prize for Young West - Act 75”, Recklinghausen 1975, catalog p. 26/27
  • "Rolf Gith", gallery in Flottbek, with texts by Gerd-Wolfgang Essen, 1976
  • “Realists in Hamburg”, Kunsthaus Hamburg 1977, catalog p. 18/19
  • "Artists in Hamburg", artist lexicon, Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1982, ISBN 3-7672-0749-4
  • "Hans Thiemann and his students", Kunsthaus Hamburg 1984, catalog p. 24/25
  • "Rolf Gith", drawings and sculptures, catalog, Wiesbaden 1994
  • "Positions on Design", University of the Arts Bremen, 1995
  • "Message of light and color", Rolf Gith - Painting 1996–2008, Rolf Gith, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-029952-0
  • "Sign of light", Rolf Gith - painting 2009–2013, Dr. Christoph Otterbeck, Michael Buchkremer, Wiesbaden 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-045145-4
  • "Low light", Rolf Gith - Painting 2013–2016, Michael Buchkremer, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-00-052806-4
  • "Foreign-familiar", KUNSTBEZIRK Stuttgart, Künstleronderbund in Deutschland 1990 eV (HRSG), catalog p. 50,51

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ZDF yearbook 2003
  2. ↑ ZDF yearbook 2013
  3. ↑ New at BBK kunsthauswiesbaden.org. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Gith, Rolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, draftsman and designer
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg