Rupprecht Geiger ‘High on red’

Abstract

There have been many attempts to describe the effect of Rupprecht Geiger’s paintings. Someone once called them ‘visible radioac- tivity.’ Others speak of ‘force fields’ ‘meditation objects,’ and the ‘cosmic energy’ that they emit. Still others focus on the sensation they create: that of sinking into an infinite, undefined space. Geiger’s color-based paint- ings are evidently not easy to grasp concep- tually. Art critic Thomas Wagner used an apt analogy when he compared the viewing ex- perience with that of looking into the sun: if you look directly into the midday sun with your eyes closed—gazing at what would otherwise be an intolerable blinding light—you are filled with light and warmth and have an immediate, intense perception of color. Geiger’s paintings are similar to the after-im- ages or memory-related pictures that we see with our eyes closed: the perception is of pure color.