Simon Lee Gallery is proud to announce German painter Georg Karl Pfahler’s inaugural presentation in London, a comprehensive survey of defining works from throughout the artist’s career. The exhibition showcases a collection of paintings and works on paper that celebrate the legacy of Germany’s first Hard Edge painter.
Pfahler developed his mature style in 1958 with his first series, Formativ. However, it was not until 1962 that Pfahler began incorporating his signature block-like forms alongside crisply defined areas of colour that embody his first Hard Edge paintings. These features epitomise his subsequent series, including Metro, West-Ost-Transit, Espan and Fra Firenze, all represented in this exhibition.
In 1963 Pfahler developed a new form of painting which was to be binding on him through the 1960s and 1970s. The artist gave primacy to colour over form, he advocated the autonomy of colour and championed the physical quality of paint. In 1968 he declared ‘Colour has a value of its own, colour is weight, colour is quality, colour possesses an inherent limitation, of itself, through itself, through other colours, colour creates space, colour is form and space’.
Georg Karl Pfahler
