Erdmut Bramke

Struktur 15/71, 1971

Succeeding the Minimal Art of the 1960s and in the wake of European Informel, a reduced painting style developed in 1970s Germany which could be described as lyrical abstraction. Erdmut Bramke had become acquainted with K.R.H. Sonderborg’s type-related, gestural black and white paintings while studying him in Stuttgart around 1970. Pictures from the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection dating from the early 1970s show how she brings a rhythmically constructed structure to the concept of expression in a painting. Bramke creates a quasi-linear succession of minimal colored forms. A rational configuration of symbolic forms determined entirely by the effect of the colors is introduced into all the emotional, spontaneous qualities which characterized her mentor’s painting. The areas of color are intentionally placed on an unprimed canvas, toning down the luminosity of the colors to create a monochrome overall impression.