Lot 504: Otto Greis(1913 Frankfurt am Main - 2001

Otto Greis(1913 Frankfurt am Main - 2001 Ockenheim). Ohne Titel. 1953 Egg tempera and resin oil. Signed and dated lower right. On Japon, probably firmly mounted on backing by the artist. 94 x 63 cm (37 x 24,8 in), the full sheet. Expertise: We are grateful to Dr. Ulla Siegert, Worpswedefor her help in cataloguing this lot Tendenzen der abstrakten Kunst nach 1945, Donata Bretschneider, Stiftung Kunst und Recht, Tübingen (ed.), Heidelberg 2003, no. 33 (with illustration in colours on p. 60). The transmutation of a tactile sensation into a visual phenomenon is, to me, painting in the full sense of the term, being involved in a process of realisation addressing all five senses. For a painter that means participating wonderfully in the world," wrote Otto Greis in 1962. Otto Greis started out by studying mechanical engineering in Frankfurt. However, he was more intrigued with the idea of being able to configure a world of his own as a painter. From 1934 until 1938 he took private lessons in painting and drawing with Johann Heinrich Höhl, who had a studio in the Städelschule in Frankfurt. Otto Greis spent the summer months of the years 1938-40 in East Frisia, where he painted vibrant watercolour landscapes. In 1939-45 he served as a medical orderly. In 1945 he made the acquaintance of Ernst Wilhelm Nay, who soon became a fast friend. Otto Greis and Karl Otto Götz attended the 1951 CoBrA exhibition in Liège, where the work of Jean Bazaine especially made a lasting impression on Greis, who went to Paris regularly from 1951. Otto Greis joined forces with Bernard Schultze, Karl-Otto Götz and Heinz Kreutz to present work collectively at the Quadriga exhibition at Zimmergalerie Franck in Frankfurt in 1952, which was the first time Otto Greis showed work publicly. In 1955 works of his were shown in Paris at Peintures et sculptures non-figuratives en Allemagne d'aujourd'hui", a Cercle Volnay exhibition. In 1957 Otto Greis moved to La Frette sur Seine near Paris. That same year he exhibited work at Lebendige Farbe - Couleur vivante", a group show at the Städtisches Museum in Wiesbaden. Otto Greis was also represented with work at the agenda-setting exhibition of 1957-58 at the Kunsthalle Mannheim. In the 1960s Otto Greis often went to Italy, partly in order to study Early Renaissance art. He was also enthralled with French Romanesque relief sculpture. From 1969 to 1983, Otto Greis spent several months a year painting in the Mediterranean. In 1983 he moved to Ockenheim on the Rhine. From then on, he spent the spring and summer months working in Alcudia de Guadix, a village in the Sierra Nevada mountains region of Andalucia in southern Spain. The Alhamilla Series, a series of pictures in small formats, found Greis developing a new repertory of forms up to about 1990 with which to work up his impressions of the southern Spanish landscape. Otto Greis died of a stroke on 30 March 2001. [NB] Good overall impression.