Theodor Gerkens

1924-2013

The dazzling colour palette of egg tempera with which Theodor Gerkens, born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1924, captures nature’s richness has a lasting impression on the viewer. It seems as if there is no colour that the artist has not already used. The infinite tonal colours and colour harmonies, give his paintings a liveliness and are reminiscent of points of light that seem to dance.

Gerkens was committed to abstract painting and studied painting and graphic arts at the Landeskunstschule Hamburg from 1947 to 1951. He liked to work in the open air, especially in his self-designed painter's garden. There he found all the inspiration for his egg tempera paintings: "It is not enough to look intensely at the portrait, nature, flowers, trees or landscape. We rather have to acquaint ourselves with them. Make their essence our own, try to understand them, to understand which characteristics control their appearance and force them to change."

By the end of 2009, Gerkens’ poor health limited him to only work in his studio, before he died in 2013.

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