Raw and exuberant, Untitled forms part of Günther Förg’s eclectic spot paintings created from 2007 to 2008; an unapologetic exposition of the artist’s inimitable creative spirit. Executed with bravura and ease of hand, a buoyant network of gestural hatchings waltzes across the vast expanse of the canvas, at once structured yet loose, open yet confined; appearing deceptively simple yet hypnotically sublime. Developed out of his earlier Grid Paintings characterised by dynamic lattices of vertical and horizontal lines, the spot paintings are amongst the late German artist’s final cycles of works, representing the grand culmination of his lifelong practice that demonstrated overt awareness of Modernism, Abstract Expressionism, and other strands of art whilst also appearing fiercely independent and unique. The Spot Paintings were partially inspired by Francis Bacon's studio, which Förg had seen photos of, and which was covered in colourful blotches of paint. He was all too familiar with the look of Bacon's studio wall, as this was the by-product of brushes being wiped clean on the walls to remove excess paint - something Förg did himself as well.

Over a career of more than thirty years, Förg worked across painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Having studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Munich from 1973-76, Förg’s early output was dominated by black monochromes that echoed the Kazimir Malevich’s ground-breaking Black Square of 1915. These early experiments with the black monochrome were to have a significant impact on his subsequent Lead Paintings; instead of using traditional canvas, Förg used hard aluminium and lead panels to which he applied acrylic paint, generating contrast between the harsh surface texture and the smooth monochrome coat of colour. Multiple influences are discerning in Förg’s painterly enterprise over the decades; from the geometry of Piet Mondrian and Robert Ryman to the materiality of Frank Stella and Richard Serra. Förg’s affiliation with colour and composition also closely references the revolutionary work of Abstract Expressionists Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman; contrastingly, Förg divorces himself from the auratic and the sublime. Instead, his swift, fluent paintings are manifestations of pure concept, neither concerned with method nor with the defence of style. This attitude gives the paintings a delightful lightness which, in the context of the history of abstract art, makes them curiously controversial.

“Förg loves the ambiguous, the indecisive, the tightrope walk between roughness and finesse,” writes art historian Florian Steininger on Förg’s Grid Paintings, going on to say that they contend with the dichotomous nature of painting in which material flatness and illusionistic depth converse and collide (Florian Steininger, ‘Günther Förg – “The Painter’s Coat”’ in: Exh. Cat., Vienna, Essl Museum, Günther Förg: Back and Forth, 2007, p. 15). With the later spot paintings, Förg arrives at a new modus operandi and a new level of impalpable and pure abstraction. The white primer on the canvas remains starkly visible beneath the composition, appearing almost illuminated beneath the exuberant paint that overlaps it. While the coloured scribbles recall the iconic hatchings of Jasper Johns, Förg’s skilful manipulation of light is reminiscent of many of Klee’s paintings which seem to produce an analogous luminescence. With a seemingly visceral tactility, Untitled conveys a paradoxical materiality that is in the exact moment harmonious and in disarray: it conjures a sense of architectural weight and a layering of depth, yet just as convincingly achieves a transcendent weightlessness. Intoxicating in its presentation of space, depth, colour and scale, Untitled poignantly and self-reflexively addresses what it means to create a painting. In Förg’s own words: “fundamentally, as soon as we engage with painting, we have the same problems that faced those at the beginning of the century or even before: problems around colour, form, composition” (the artist cited in David Ryan, Talking Painting, Dialogues with Twelve Contemporary Abstract Painters, New York 2002, p. 80). Dynamic and bold, playful and raw, Untitled encapsulates the artist’s ambitions as a painter.

《無題》來自已故德國藝術家君特・弗格2007年至2008年的點畫系列，畫風不拘一格，奔放而生動，展現他與別不同的創作精神。憑藉弗格精湛嫻熟的創作技藝，充滿動感的陰影條紋在廣闊的畫布上翩翩起舞，既井然有序，又狂放鬆散；時而開放，時而約束；看似簡單直接，卻又壯美無窮，令人迷醉。弗格早期的「網格繪畫」以畫面上縱橫交錯的生動網格而著稱，而《點畫》則由此發展而來，作為藝術家最終的創作系列之一，清晰反映他對現代主義、抽象表現主義與其他藝術形式的關注，同時展示自主而獨特的強烈風格。《點畫》系列受到弗朗西斯 · 培根（Francis Bacon）工作室的啟發。弗格曾看到過培根工作室的照片，照片中牆面布滿了五顏六色的油漆斑點。 他對培根工作室牆面的外觀非常熟悉，藝術家常用畫筆在牆上擦拭以去除多餘的顏料——這也是弗格經常做的手法。

弗格在三十多年來的創作跨越繪畫、攝影、雕塑以及平面設計。他於1973年至1976就讀於慕尼黑美術學院，早期以黑色單色畫為主要創作，與卡茲米爾・馬列維奇1915年的革新作品《黑色方塊》互相呼應。這些早期嘗試的黑色單色畫對他隨後的〈鉛畫〉帶來重要影響。相比起傳統畫布，他運用堅硬的鋁及鉛板塗繪壓克力彩，使粗糙的畫面紋理與光滑的單色塗層形成對比。從皮耶・蒙德里安與羅伯特・賴曼的幾何形態，以至弗蘭克・史蒂拉與理查・塞拉的物質形式，這些藝術家均對弗格數十年來的創作帶來不少影響。他對色彩及構圖的想像聯繫，更源自馬克・羅斯科及巴奈特・紐曼等的抽象表現主義革新創作。有所不同的是，弗格脫離至高無上的壯美之感，他的畫作乾脆利索，不在乎創作方法或風格規範，充分表現純粹概念。這種創作理念使畫作輕盈怡人，其獨特之處在抽象藝術歷史上引起討論。

藝術史學家弗洛里安·斯坦寧格就弗格的「網格繪畫」寫道：「弗格喜愛粗獷與精緻之間的模棱兩可，如在兩者之間踏索而行。」他續說，網格作品抗衡繪畫的二分本質，物質的平面形態與幻想的深度融合交錯（弗洛里安·斯坦寧格撰，<君特·弗格：畫家之衣>，《君特·弗格：來回往返》展覽圖錄，維也納，埃斯爾博物館，2007年，頁15）。從弗格後期的點畫可見他的全新創作手法，達致微妙而純粹的抽象新境界。白色底漆依然在構圖中清晰可見，看來如在鮮豔顏料覆蓋下綻放光芒。彩色的陰影條紋令人聯想起賈斯培·瓊斯的創作，而弗格掌握光線的精湛技法亦與保羅·克利的眾多作品相似，塑造明亮發光的效果。《無題》別具由內而發的觸覺，展示矛盾的物質形式，和諧與紛亂並存，當中令人想到建築構造與深度層次，卻又能締造輕盈無重的超驗效果。本作呈現的空間、深度、色彩與範圍令人深深陶醉，以深切銳利、自身反射的方式表現繪畫創作的意義。如弗格所說：「從根本來看，當我們接觸繪畫，我們便面對世紀之初或更早前人一直以來的課題──那些圍繞色彩、形態與構圖的課題。」（引自君特·弗格，大衛·瑞安撰，《關於畫作，與二十位當代抽象畫家對話》，紐約，2002年，80頁）《無題》大膽生動，趣味盎然，原始純粹，巧妙概括弗格作為畫家的雄心壯志。