The joint Quadriga exhibition at Zimmergalerie Franck in Frankfurt in December 1952 alongside K. O. Götz, Heinz Kreutz and Bernard Schultze marked a new beginning for Otto Greis: the start of an ongoing search for his own inimitable statement in painting.
After figurative beginnings, Greis became more interested in ancient and non-European cultures. The artist lived and worked in Paris for several months, every spring and autumn, from 1957 to 1984 to further his work. With his Tuareg series, he drew upon ancient stories and chose a supernatural revelation as the theme for his work Orakel. Its interwoven dark green and black lines create a gloomy, nocturnal atmosphere which is broken by individual points of light. With Otto Greis – and thanks to the Reinhard Ernst Collection – an important artist of the post-war period has returned to the Rhine-Main region.
Otto Greis (1913–2001)
Orakel (Tuareg Series), 1956
Currently exhibited: No
Material: Mixed media on canvas
Size: 180 x 120 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_319
Image rights: Nachlass Otto Greis
Keywords:
Previous owner: K. Gabler, Frankfurt; Sammlung Christiane Kern, Frankfurt, 1974; Brigitte Büdenhölzer Kunsthandel, Emmendingen, 2010; private collection
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, private collection, 2014
Solo exhibitions:
1995
‘Otto Greis’, Galerie Appel und Fertsch, Frankfurt; Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal
1978
‘Otto Greis. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Handzeichnungen 1947–1977’, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen; Staatliche Museen Kassel, Kassel
1975
‘Otto Greis. Bilder der 50er Jahre’, Galerie Hans Ostertag, Frankfurt
1968
‘Otto Greis. Gemälde, Zeichnungen’, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
Otto Greis was born in Frankfurt am Main and died in Ockenheim am Rhein. He contributed to a number of exhibitions in Hessen including ‘Couleur vivante – lebendige Farbe’ (‘Living Colour’) at Museum Wiesbaden in 1957. It was during his debut in 1949 with his solo exhibition at the Frankfurt Zimmergalerie Franck that he met Karl Otto Götz. Götz had been a member of the artist group CoBrA since 1949, whose main representatives included Karel Appel, Asger Jorn and Constant.
Their revolutionary attitude based on a rejection of traditional art forms and aesthetic ideas made a lasting impression on Greis: ‘…the fact that you could sense their rebellion resulted in me immediately throwing all my disciplined work overboard, I couldn’t take it anymore […]. This eruption led directly and deliberately to me shaking off what I had previously held up as shining examples. Furthermore, it was this urge to experiment, to push the “picture” to its extremes. It was a real adventure with the means and tools of painting.’ [1]
Greis’ works were shown in December 1952 together with works by K. O. Götz, Heinz Kreutz and Bernard Schultze in the Quadriga exhibition at the Frankfurt Zimmergalerie Franck. This marked a significant change in his development as a painter. His search for his own inimitable statement in painting found Greis becoming more interested in ancient and non-European cultures. The artist lived and worked in Paris for several months, every spring and autumn, from 1957 to 1984 to further his work. With his Tuareg series, he drew upon ancient stories and chose a supernatural revelation as the theme for his work Orakel. Its interwoven dark green and black lines create a gloomy, nocturnal atmosphere which is broken by individual points of light. With Otto Greis – and thanks to the Reinhard Ernst Collection – an important artist of the post-war period has returned to the Rhine-Main region.
[1] Letter from Otto Greis to Ursula Geiger, La Frette sur Seine, 13.1.1983, quoted in: Ursula Geiger: Die Maler der Quadriga und ihre Stellung im Informel, Nuremberg 1987, p. 75.
