Hermann J. Painitz

Herrmann Josef Painitz was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1938. From 1956 to 1960 completed training as a goldsmith and silversmith. In the years from 1973 to 1983 he was president of the Vienna Secession. Hermann Painitz lived and worked in Vienna, where he passed away in 2018.

Hermann J. Painitz saw himself as an overcomer of Fantastic Realism, but also of Abstract Expressionism. In his art he strove to eradicate the freedom of the spontaneous mind and the uncontrolled and individual gesture. He approached the analysis of art unconditionally, searching for inner regularities and finding a geometric visual language that followed a clear order. His compositions were always based on the basic mathematical shapes of circle, rectangle and square. He himself described his works as "logical art". His artistic approach of strict objectification allowed him to translate themes of society and everyday life into abstract sign systems. The visual appearance of his works is sometimes reminiscent of colorfully prepared intersections, scales, and diagrammatic evaluations based on facts and figures.

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