(Bitterfeld, Germany 1924–1971New York, USA)
Untitled, 1964, signed, dated, numbered on the reverse Seidel 1964 NYC 23, oil on canvas, 176.5 x 139 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Germany

After he was released from British imprisonment, Jochen Seidel studied under Charles Crodel at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle. There, he became acquainted with Hermann Bachmann, Otto Müller, Karl-Erich Müller and Willi Sitte. He moved to West Berlin in 1953, where he was supported by Galerie Rudolf Springer. He developed an abstract, two-dimensional style of painting in Berlin, which enabled him to win international acclaim. His first dynamic, field-like two-dimensional compositions in red, green, black and white were created in Berlin in the early 1960s. Jochen Seidel continued this series of “poem paintings” in New York from 1964 onwards. It often took several years for the “poem paintings” to be created due to the sheer lack of painting materials. The organic, fractal shapes remind the viewer of Maxim Gorky or Joan Miró. They partly cover transparent layers of paint and coloured shapes that have already been completed. Today, Jochen Seidel’s work can be found in various international collections held by the Brooklyn Museum, New York, the State Gallery of Moritzburg, Halle (Saale), the SMPK Copper Engravings Collection, Berlin, and the Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum, New York.