Gottfried Honegger Exhibition

14 March 2024

Gottfried Honegger · 1990

Dr. Dorothea van der Koelen is presenting a Gottfried Honegger retrospective at the Cadoro – Center for Art and Science in Mainz from March 16, 2024, highlighting the work of the Zurich Concrete artist from 1953 to 2015. The gallerist and the artist, who was first exhibited in Mainz in 1989, have enjoyed a long-standing friendship and intensive collaboration. Numerous book projects realized by Chorus Publishing for Art and Science bear witness to the fruitful cooperation. The show was made possible by Honegger’s daughter, Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, who provided the works on display from the artist’s archive.

Honegger’s work – in which he combines the rational principle of constructive art with empathy, spontaneity and chance methodology – develops over various distinct phases: Tableau-Relief, Biseautage (panel paintings), Volume, Monoforme, Structure, Fragment (sculptures), Tableau-Espace and Artefact (wall objects). The main themes of his work are the investigation of color (Honegger often works in monochrome) and the synthesis of the figure and its fragments (Circle and Square, Cercle et Carré).

The focus of the retrospective is on the relief works. Under the title Tableau-Relief, Honegger created the painterly cycle of mostly monochrome, often multi-part pictorial objects that is still central to his work today. Honegger used the collage technique for this until around 1980. By manually applying small cardboard plates to the canvas – which are painted in several glazed layers or treated with graphite pencil – he creates the delicate relief character of the pictorial objects.

In the 1980s, Honegger devoted himself to investigating the tension between the ordered compositional grid and the free, so-called residual surface. Typical of the works of this period are a more pronounced relief and an expanded color palette. In the 1990s, Honegger then focused on large-format Tableaux-Reliefs. These are neutrally painted two-part pictorial objects of the Shaped Canvas type, in which a circle and a square section often meet - remaining true to the two souls in his chest – Cercle et Carré.

The vernissage will take place next Saturday, March 16, 2024 from 4 to 6 pm at the Cadoro. Culture journalist Marianne Hoffmann will give the opening speech. Secretary of Culture Marianne Grosse will provide a short welcoming speech. We look forward to seeing you there in large numbers.