Karl Fred Dahmen

German painter (Stolberg, near Aix-la-Chapelle, 1917 - Preinersdorf / Chiemghau, 1981).

From 1931 to 1933, he trained at the School of Decorative Arts in Aix-la-Chapelle and was mobilized from 1939 to 1945. From 1951 to 1954, he traveled to France, Belgium and Italy and, in 1955, held its first solo exhibition at the gal. Arnaud in Paris. In 1956 and 1957 he worked with the group of informal German artists. In 1967 he was appointed professor at the Munich Academy. Its beginnings are placed under the sign of objectivity, with city views and industrial landscapes.

After a fairly long stay in the French capital in 1952, and undoubtedly under the influence of the Paris school, he encloses his panoramic views in a network of geometric lines where the subject disappears: in its place the non-objective form reigns. , the arrangement of lines and the assembly of surfaces (Vegetative Composition, 1955, Aix-la-Chapelle museum). In the circle of German tachists of the gal. 22 in Düsseldorf, where color was exploited to produce original material effects, Dahmen used earthy synthetic pastes, spread over the canvas in several layers (Zwischenwelt, 1958).

The paintings thus offer a characteristic relief with a strongly furrowed surface, where the network of lines serves as a structure for the composition (Terrestrial Formation series). From his works were born wood collages and assemblages (slate wall for the University of Heidelberg, 1963). With the relief painting that has become an object in space, Dahmen associates the residues of daily use (tires, exhaust pipes, hair, string), the color only playing a role of binding and aesthetic appeal ( series of gibbet paintings, where large monochrome surfaces are divided by ropes or chains, remote landscapes, paintings of cushions: Tableau-gibet, 1968; Upholstered painting with leather mounting, 1968).

From 1974, series of drawings and collages, where geometric shapes are associated with streaks and scratches (Kalendartage series) precede a return to painting where large monochrome plans are crossed out and scratched (Peinture-sillon) . A retrospective exhibition took place in 1976 at the municipal gallery in Linz. The artist is represented in the museums of Aachen, Bonn, Hamburg, Hanover, Essen, Stuttgart, Wuppertal, Basel, Munich, Rotterdam, Oslo and Darmstadt.