Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/karl-otto-gotz-2203" aria-label="More by Karl-Otto Götz" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Karl-Otto Götz</a>
Transferred from the Library 1987
abstraction
gestural
irregular forms
non-representational
paper print lithograph
Untitled
image: 260 × 208 mm
Transferred from the Library 1987
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gotz-untitled-p08216" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P08216</span></a> <b>Untitled</b> 1953
<br/>Ohne Titel
<br/>
<br/>Lithograph 260 × 208 (10 1/4 × 8 1/8) on wove <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> 260 × 208 (10 1/4 × 8 1/8); printer not known; inset in Edouard Jaguer (ed.), <i>Phases</i>, I, published by Paul Fachetti, Paris 1954; not otherwise editioned
<br/>Printed inscription ‘K.O. Götz 53’ b.r.
<br/>Transferred from the Library 1987</p>
<p><span>P08216</span> is a non-<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/representational" title="Glossary definition for 'Representational'"><span>representational</span></a> image consisting of quickly drawn, looping black lines of varying density and thickness, on white <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a>. It was one of two <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithographs</span></a> originally inserted, along with an untitled lithograph by Willi Baumeister of the same year (see entry on <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/baumeister-untitled-suspended-lines-i-p08214" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P08214</span></a>), in the first issue of the periodical <i>Phases. Phases</i> was an annual publication, first published in Paris in 1954. It was dedicated to contemporary art and literature and several issues contained original <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a>, the majority bound in the magazine rather than inset. The first series of <i>Phases</i> ran until the early 1960s and a second short-lived series began in 1969 and ended in 1970. Götz lived in Frankfurt during the 1950s but visited Paris frequently. In conversation with the compiler in Germany on 18 May 1990, the artist said that he did not regard <span>P08216</span> as a particularly important print. He recalled that it was executed ‘almost in an automatist manner’. With its speedily executed circular gestures, <span>P08216</span> contrasts with the more sweeping, even more vigorously <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gestural" title="Glossary definition for 'Gestural'"><span>gestural</span></a>, imagery found in the majority of Götz's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> and prints of this period. In the first volume of his memoirs, Götz described how he came to be involved with <i>Phases:</i></p>
<p>From 22 until 28 January 1954 I took part in a group show at the Studio Facchetti [in Paris]. At the same time the first number of the periodical <i>Phases</i>, edited by my friend Edouard Jaguer in Paris, appeared. When, during the autumn of 1953, we were discussing the content of the first issue, I hit upon the title <i>Phases</i> by co-incidence. Jaguer immediately concurred. At Fachetti's Jaguer presented works by several of the artists included in the first issue..</p>
<p align="right">(Karl Otto Götz, <i>Erinnerung und Werk</i>, Ia, Düsseldorf 1983, p.626)</p>
<p>The other artists in the Studio Fachetti show were Alechinsky, Arnal, Bryen, Capogrossi, Corneille, Georges, Gillet, Greis, Hayter, Haese, Herold, Jorn, Matta, Nieva, Schultze and Tajiri.</p>
<p>With its combination of sweeping lines and gestural brush marks, <span>P08216</span> shows some affinity to another untitled lithograph of the same year which was inserted into the March edition (no.10) of the journal <i>Meta</i> (repr. Götz 1983, p.561). In a letter to the compiler dated 28 January 1994, Götz said that he had printed this lithograph and P 08216 around the corner from where he lived in Frankfurt, although he could no longer remember the name of the printer. He had drawn directly onto lithographic plates, which were printed on a small Rotaprint press. Götz began using lithographic stones several years later, in 1958.</p>
<p>The artist has approved this entry.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>Tate Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i> <i>1986-88</i>, London 1996
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction gestural irregular forms non-representational