Ludwig Gebhard

Ludwig Gebhard (born 1933 in Tiefenbach, Germany, died 2007 in Landsberg am Lech, Germany) became internationally renowned for his masterful linocuts. A museum devoted to his life and works opened in his birthplace in 2000. Especially remarkable are his reductive linocuts in which the linoleum sheet is used to print the first color then reworked and used again to print the next layer of color on the paper. Gebhard’s prints, which have up to 14 of these layers, demonstrate a mature aesthetic consciousness and an extreme precision in their seamless color gradients and their color coordinated, basic geometric patterns. Gebhard plays with warm and cool color nuances that change in barely perceptible ways, thus creating the illusion of space and resonance in spherical dimensions. While the dividing lines seem extremely sharp, the distinct geometric structures display slight irregularities, lending the compositions genuine expressivity.
Ludwig Gebhard became a friend and artistic collaborator of Eugen Gomringer, the founder of Concrete poetry, in 1967. He dedicated the portfolio “Tre per tre" to Gomringer in 1981, and in 1983 he created “Zeitzeichen,” which consists of ten black and white stone lithographs, assembled in a linen box, to which Eugen Gomringer contributed a text.
Gebhard’s works comprise paintings, sculptures, freehand drawings, lithographs, linocuts, etchings, jewelry, and textile design. They depict highly abstract figurative representations, Constructivist compositions, still lifes, human figures, and landscapes. He produced these works using many different techniques, making them difficult to classify due to their stylistic diversity. While he was influenced by Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Victor Vasarely, he also translated elements from Concrete and Constructivist Art, Surrealism, and Cubism into his own artistic language.

Dominique von Burg