Großes Weiß. 1969.
Mixed media on canvas.
Signed, dated, titled, inscribed "Hannover" and with a direction arrow. 200 x 160 cm (78.7 x 62.9 in). [JS].

• Large-size early work in Girke's characteristic, minimalistic style.
• Girke is a master of the monochrome painting: while his oeuvre at around 1960 was still dominated by the non-colors black and white, he had attained maximum nuances of white by the late 1960s.
• "Großes Weiß" (Big White) declares the non-color white in all its shades and levels of expression the protagonist of the gently modulated composition.
• Through the rhythmic structure and nuances, Girke creates the fascinating illusion of three-dimensionality and movement.
• In 2022, the MKM Museum Küppersmühle, Duisburg, honored Girke's oeuvre with a major retrospective entitled "Raimund Girke. Klang der Stille" (Sound of Silence).

PROVENANCE: Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia (since 2007).

EXHIBITION: Deutsche Avantgarde, Kestner Gesellschaft e. V., Hanover 1969, no. 94 (with the label on the stretcher).

LITERATURE: Zeitgenössische Kunst / Contemporary Art, Lempertz, Cologne, auction 912, November 29, 2007, lot 741 (with illu.).

"The horizontal stripes stand out from the white of the surface as they are composed of a lighter zone at the top and a shaded zone at the bottom. This creates the illusion as if the canvas bulged towards the observer. At the same time, a kind of virtual movement arises on the surface. The distances between the lines vary so that the pictorial body seems to expand in certain and contract in other areas, comparable to a living, breathing organism. The application of the paint with the spray gun enables the artist to render the most subtle color gradients, with the white appearing as a delicate, diaphanous mist on the canvas."
Dietmar Elger, Raimund Girke. Malerei, Bonn 1995, p. 66.